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THE    EXPOSITOR'S  BIBLE 


EDITED   BY  THE   REV. 

W.    ROBERTSON    NICOLL,    M.A.,    LL.D. 

Editot  of  "  The  Expositor  " 


THE     SECOND     BOOK     OF     KINGS 


F.    W.    FARRAR,    D.D..     F.R.S. 


NEW  YORK 

A.    C.    ARMSTRONG    AND    SON 

51    EAST    TENTH    STREET 


E^E 


THE^EXPOSITOR'S     BIBLE. 

Crown  Svo,  cloth,  price  Si  50c.  each  vol. 


Colossians. 


First  Series,  1887-8. 

1  Samuel. 


By  A.  Maclaren,  D.D. 

St.  Mark. 

By  Very  Rev.  the  Dean  of  Armagh. 

Genesis. 

By  Prof.  Marcus  DoDS,  D.D. 


Galatians. 

By  Prof.  G.  G.  FiNDLAY,  B.A. 

The  Pastoral  -Epistles. 

By  Rev.  A.  Plummer,  D.D. 

Isaiah  i. — xxxix. 

By  G.  A.  Smith,  M.A.    Vol.  I.  ' 


By  Prof.   W.   G.  Blaikie,  D.D. 

2  Samuel. 

By  the  same  Author. 

Hebrews, 

By  Principal  T.C.  Edwards.D.D. 
Second  Series,  1888-9. 

I   Tlie  Boiok  of  Revelation. 

By  Prof.  W.  Milligan,  D.D. 

1  Corinthians. 

By  jrof.  Marcus  Dods,  D.D. 

I   The  Epistles  of  St,  John. 

I     •      By  Rt.  Rev.  W.  Alexandkr,D.D. 


Judges  and  Ruth. 

By  Rev.  R.  A.  Watson,  D.D. 

Jeremiah. 

By  Rev.  C.  J.  Ball,  M.A. 

Isaiah  xl. — lxvi. 

By  G.  A.  Smith,  M.A.     Vol.  II. 


Third  Series,  1889-90. 

St.  Matthew. 

By  Rev.  J.  Monro  Gibson,  D.D. 

Exodus, 

By  Very  Rev.  the  Dean  of  Armagh. 

St.  Luke. 

By  Rev.  H.  Burton,  M.A. 


Ecclesiastes. 

By  Rev.  Samuel  Cox,  D.D. 

St.  James  and  St.  Jude. 

By  Rev.  A.  Plummer,  D.D. 

Proverbs. 

By  Rev.  R.  F.  Horton,  M.A. 


Fourth  Series,  1890-1. 
I    Leviticus. 


The  Psalms. 

By  A.  Maclaren,  D.D.     Vol.  I 
T  and  2  Thessalonians. 
By  Jamhs  Dknnky,  B.D. 

The  Book  of  Job. 

By  R.  A.  Watson,  D.D. 


1    Kings. 

By  Ven.  Archdeacon  F.^rrar. 

Fhilippians. 

By  Principal  Rainy,  D.D. 
Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Esther. 

By  Prof.  W.  F.  Adhney,  M.A 


2  Kings. 

By  Ven.  Archdeacon  Fakrar. 

Romans. 

By  H.  C.  G.  MouLE,  M.A. 
1  Chronicles. 

By  Prof.  W.  H.  Bennett,  M..\ 


By  Rev.  S.  H.  Kellogg,  D.D. 

The  Gospel  of  St.  John. 

By  Prof.  M.  DoDS,  D.D.    Vol.  I. 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
By  Prof.  Stokes,  D.D.   Vol.  I. 
Fifth  Series,  1891-2. 

I    Ephesians. 

By  Prof.  G.  G.  FiNDLAY,  B.A. 

The  Gospel  of  St.  John. 

ByProf.M.  Dods,  D.D.    Vol.11. 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

By  Prof.  Stokes,  D.D.    Vol.  II. 
Sixth  Series,  1892-3. 
Joshua, 

By  Prof.  W.  G.  Blaikie,  D.D. 

The  Psalms. 

By  A.  Maclaren,  D.D.    Vol.  II. 

The  Epistles  of  St.  Peter. 

By  Prof  Rawson  Lumbv,  D.D. 
Seventh  Series,  1893-4. 

2  Corinthians. 

By  James  Denney,  B.D. 

Numbers. 

By  R.  A.  Watson,  D.D. 

The  Psalms. 

ByA.  Maclaren,  D.D.  Vol.  III. 


THE 


SECOND    BOOK    OF    KINGS 


F.    W.    FARRAR,    D.D.,    F.R.S. 

LATE  FF.LLOW  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE,   CAMBRIDGE  ;   ARCHDEACON   OF 
WESTMINSTER 


NEW  YORK 

A.    C.    ARMSTRONG    AND    SON 
51    EAST    TENTH    STREET 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    I 

PAGE 

AHAZIAH    BEN-AHAB    OF    ISRAEL    (b.C.    855-854)       .  .  3 

A  weak,  shadowy,  and  faithless  king — I.  Relations  between 
Judah  and  Israel — 2.  Alliance  with  Jehoshaphat — 3.  Revolt 
of  Moab — Mesha  and  the  Moabite  Stone — 4.  The  fall  from  the 
lattice — Baal-Zebub — Elijah  calling  down  fire  from  heaven — 
How  are  we  to  judge  respecting  the  Elijah-spirit  ? — Variations 
of  moral  standard. 

CHAPTER    n 

THE   ASCENSION   OF   ELIJAH.  .  .  ..  .  -19 

Uncertain  date — The  journey  to  Gilgal ;  to  Bethel ;  to 
Jericho  ;  to  the  Jordan — The  double  portion — Chariot  and 
horses  of  fire — Elisha  recrosses  the  Jordan — The  young 
prophets  and  their  search— Grandeur  of  Elijah. 

CHAPTER    ni 

ELISHA 25 

Cycle  of  supernatural  stories — Elisha  and  Elijah — The  cure 
of  the  unwholesome  fountain — "Go  up,  thou  bald-head" — 
The  children  and  the  bears, 

CHAPTER    IV 

THE   INVASION    OF    MOAB         ......       29 

Death  of  Ahaziah — Jehoram  Ben-Ahab  of  Israel — Good 
beginnings — Attempts  to  recover  Moab — Alliance  with  Judah 
and  Edom — The  invasion — An  army  perishing  of  thirst — Elisha 
— Music — Trenches  in   the  wady— Error  of  the   Moabites — 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Their  disastrous  rout — Devastation  of  the  country — Mesha 
propitiates  Chemosh — "  Great  wrath  against  Israel  " — The 
invading  army  retreats. 

CHAPTER    V 

elisha's  miracles       .         .         .         .         .         .         .40 

Their  chronological  vagueness — Difference  between  Elisha 
and  Elijah — Contrasts  and  resemblances — Social  life  in  Israel — 
I.  The  widow  and  the  oil — 2.  The  lady  of  Shunem — Her 
hospitality — Her  reward — 3.  The  boy's  death — Her  distress 
— The  resuscitation — 4.  Death  in  the  pot — 5.  The  multiplied 
first-fruits. 

CHAPTER    VI 

THE   STORY   OF    NAAMA  ......       50 

The  little  maid — The  leper — ^ Letter  of  Benhadad  to  Jehoram 
— His  indignation — ^Elisha's  message — Naaman's  disappoint- 
ment and  anger — His  servants — His  healing— His  gratitude — 
Bowing  in  the  house  of  Rimmon — Mean  cupidity  of  Gehazi 
— Stricken  with  leprosy — The  axe-head. 

CHAPTER    VII 

ELISHA    AND    THE    SYRIANS 66 

Syrian  marauders — They  are  baffled — Anger  of  Benhadad — 
The  vision  at  Dothan — Meaning  of  the  promises — How  ful- 
filled to  God's  saints  on  earth — Some  are  delivered,  some  are 
not — Elisha  misleads  the  Syrians — His  generosity  to  them — 
Its  effects — A  fresh  Syrian  invasion. 

CHAPTER    VIII 

THE    FAMINE   AND   THE    SIEGE         ....  76 

Horrible  straits  of  the  besieged  Samaritans— Stress  of 
famine — The  King  of  Israel — The  miserable  women — Sack- 
cloth under  the  purple — The  king's  fury  and  despair — He 
threatens  Elisha — The  messenger — Th  king  upbraids  him — 
Prophecy  of  sudden  plenty — The  disbelieving  lord — The  extra- 
mural lepers — The  Syrian  camp — The  king's  misgivings — The 
lord  killed  in  the  rush  of  the  people. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    IX 

PAGE 

THE   SHUNAMMITE   AND    HAZAEL 87 

The  lady  of  Shunem  leaves  her  estate — Her  return — Gehazi 
talks  with  the  king — Entrance  of  the  Shunammite — Her  estates 
restored — Elisha  visits  Damascus — A  royal  present— Ben- 
hadad's  illness — Hazael — The  dark  prophecy — Unexplained 
death  of  Benhadad — Hazael's  usurpation — Real  meaning  of 
Elisha's  words  to  Hazael. 

CHAPTER    X 

TWO    SONS    OF   JEHOSHAPHAT 99 

Jehoram  (b.c.  851-843) — Ahaziah  (b.c.  843-842) — Jehoram 
ben-Jehoshaphat  of  Judah — Perplexing  uncertainty  of  minute 
chronological  details — The  blight  of  the  Jezebel-alliance — The 
husband  of  Athaliah — His  apostasies — Revolt  of  Edom — 
Narrow  escape  of  Jehoram — Revolt  of  Libnah — Jehoram's 
murder  by  his  brethren — Philistine  invasion — Incurable  disease 
— Ahaziah  ben-Jehoram — Joins  his  uncle  (Jehoram  ben-Ahab) 
in  the  campaign  against  Ramoth-Gilead — Visits  him  at  Jezreel 
— Shot  down  by  Jehu. 

CHAPTER    XI 

THE   REVOLT   OF   JEHU    (b.C.    842)  ....    I06 

Misery  of  Jehoram's  reign — Thwarted  invasion  of  Moab 
— Aggression  of  Benhadad — At  Ramoth-Gilead — The  young 
prophet  —  The  two  kings  absent  from  the  camp  —  The 
dangerous  commission  —  The  assembled  captains  —  Jehu 
secretly  anointed — His  accession  enthusiastically  welcomed  by 
the  army — His  sudden  enthronement — His  swift  resolution^ 
The  watchman  at  Jezreel — The  two  horsemen— The  two  kings 
— Their  murder — Ferocity  of  Jehu — Elijah's  prophecy — ^Jezebel 
— She  is  hurled  down — Jehu  drives  over  her  body — The  curse 
fulfilled. 

CHAPTER    XII. 

JEHU    ESTABLISHED    ON   THE   THRONE    (b.C.    842-814)     .    I25 

His  politic  subtlety — The  murder  of  the  seventy  princes — 
The  ghastly  heaps — Hypccritic  ferocity. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    XIII 

PAGE 

FRESH   MURDERS THE    EXTIRPATION  OF    BAAL-WORSHIP 

(B.C.    842) 131 

Wading  through  blood  to  a  throne — The  ride  to  Samaria — 
The  brethren  of  Ahaziah  of  Judah — The  corpse-choked  tank 
of  the  shepherds — The  Bedawy  ascetic — The  scene  of  slaughter 
in  the  temple  of  Baal — Did  Elisha  approve  of  these  atrocities  ? 
— Prophetic  judgment  on  Jehu — Ravages  of  Hazael — Jehu's 
anguish — He  pays  tribute  to  Assyria. 

CHAPTER    XIV 

ATHALIAH     (b.C.      842-836) — JOASH     OF      JUDAH      (b.C. 

836-796) 146 

The  murderess-daughter  of  Jezebel — Fierce  ambition — 
Jehosheba — The  rescued  child — Reared  in  the  Temple — The 
high  priest's  plot — The  coronation  of  the  boy-king — Athaliah 
enters  the  Temple — Her  murder — The  fate  of  Baal's  high 
priest — Proposed  restoration  of  the  Temple— Joash  calls  to 
task  the  defaulting  priests— Death  of  Jehoiada — Defection  01 
Joash — Murder  of  Zechariah — Bad  record  of  the  line  of  Jewish 
priests — Hazael  attacks  Judah — Defeat  of  Joash  and  plunder 
of  Jerusalem — Murder  of  Joash — Names  of  the  murderers, 

CHAPTER    XV 

AMAZIAH    OF   JUDAH    (b.C.    796-783  [?])  .  .  .    167 

The  House  of  David  —  Amaziah  brings  to  justice  the 
murderers  of  his  father,  but  spares  their  children — Grounds 
for  this — Different  views  taken  of  him  by  the  historian  and  the 
chronicler — Splendid  victory  of  Amaziah  in  the  Valley  of  Salt 
— Expansion  of  the  stoiy  in  the  Chronicles — His  defiance  of 
Joash — His  defeat  and  murder. 

CHAPTER    XVI 

THE     DYNASTY     OF     JEHU — JEHOAHAZ      (b.C.     814-797) 

—JOASH    (b.C.    797-781) 175 

Israel  at  its  nadir — Calf-worship — Oppression  ot  Hazael 
— Disappearance  of  Elisha — Repentance  of  Jehoahaz — Joash 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


of  Israel  visits  the  death-bed  of  Elisha — "The  arrow  of  the 
Lord's  deliverance  " — Three  victories  over  the  Syrians — Death 
of  Elisha,  and  posthumous  marvels — Joash  and  Amaziah — 
Contemptuous  answer  to  the  King  of  Judah — Crushing  defeat 
of  Judah. 

CHAPTER    XVII 

THE    DYNASTY    OF    JEHU     (CONTINUED) — JEROBOAM    II. 

(B.C.    781-740) 187 

Jeroboam  II.  the  greatest  of  the  kings  of  Israel — His  con- 
quests and  wide  dominion — A  dying  gleam  of  prosperity — 
Cause  of  his  success — Relations  with  Assyria — Dawn  of 
written  prophecy — Jonah. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 
AMOS  AND  HOSEA — ZACHARIAH  BEN-JEROBOAM  (b.C.  740)    1 93 

Amos  describes  the  condition  of  Israel — Growth  of  usury 
and  vice — Humble  origin  of  Amos — His  burdens — Degenera- 
tions of  the  "calf-worship" — Uncompromising  denunciation 
— Collision  of  Amos  with  Amaziah  the  high  priest  at  Bethel — 
His  expulsion  from  Bethel — The  curse  denounced — His  justi- 
fication of  his  mission — -Hosea  the  saddest  of  the  prophets — 
— His  pictures  of  Ephraim — Jeroboam  II. — His  death — His 
•    son  Zachariah — His  desertion  and  shameful  end. 

CHAPTER    XIX 

UZZIAH     OF     JUDAH     (b.C.     783[?]-737) — JOTHAM    (b.C. 

737-735) 209 

Wane  of  Assyria — Uzziah  a  wise  and  good  king — His  other 
name  Azariah — Expansion  of  the  story  of  his  conquests  in 
the  Chronicles — Training  of  his  army — Defeated  by  the  As- 
syrians (?) — Stricken  with  leprosy — The  story — Jotham  acts 
as  his  public  representative — Diminished  power  of  Judah 
under  Jotham — Beginning  of  Isaiah's  prophecies — Death  of 
Jotham. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    XX 

PAGE 

THE    AGONY    OF     THE    NORTHERN    KINGDOM — SHALLUM, 

MENAHEM,    PEKAHIAH,    PEKAH    (b.C.    74O-734)  .    217 

Shallum,  an  usurping  murderer — Rapid  disappearance  of 
kings — Distracted  epoch — The  prophet  Zechariah  and  the 
three  shepherds — Zechariah's  prophecies — The  cruel  shepherd, 
Menahem — His  savage  deeds — Portentous  appearance  of  the 
Assyrians  in  Israel — Menahem  pays  tribute — Tiglath-Pileser 
— Fulfilment  of  Hosea's  prophecy — Pekahiah — His  murder — 
Pekah — His  alliance  with  Rezin  against  Judah — Ahaz  appeals 
to  Assyria — Defeat  and  death  of  Rezin — Fulfilment  of  pro- 
phecy of  Amos — Beginning  of  the  captivity  of  the  Ten  Tribes 
— Tiglath-Pileser's  successors — Murder  of  Pekah  by  Hoshea 
— Horrible  state  of  Israel  as  described  by  Isaiah. 


CHAPTER    XXI 

KING      HOSHEA     AND     THE     FALL     OF      THE      NORTHERN 

KINGDOM    (b.C.    734-725) 235 

The  name  Hoshea — The  king  and  thg  prophet — Occasional 
gleams  of  hope  and  promise — A  humiliating  reign — Death  of 
Tiglath-Pileser — Hoshea  revolts  to  Sabaco  of  Egj-pt— Seized 
by  Shalmaneser — Samaria  besieged — Terrible  state  of  the 
city — Sabaco  renders  no  help — Usurpation  of  Sargon  —Capture 
of  the  city — Greatness  of  Sargon — Fall  of  the  Northern  King- 
dom— Blighted  destiny — God's  mercy — "  God,  and  not  man  " — 
Despoliation  of  the  tribes — Moral  of  the  story — Assyria  and 
Egypt — The  strength  and  weakness  of  a  nation — Machiavelli 
— Mixture  of  alien  emigrants — Their  worship — The  lions — 
Strange  syncretism — The  Jews  and  the  Samaritans. 


CHAPTER    XXII 
THE    REIGN    OF    AHAZ    (s.C.    735-7x5)     •  •  •  .    260 

The    chronology— A    distracted    kingdom — Dark    pictures 
from  Isaiah— No  sign  of  repentance — Grapes  and  wild  graphs. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

PAGE 

ISAIAH    AND   AHAZ  .......    265 

Isaiah — Rezin  and  Pekah — Ahaz  meets  Isaiah — He  receives 
a  promise  of  deliverance— He  refuses  a  sign — The  sign  given 
him — Immanuel — Birth  of  Messianic  prophecy — Maher-shalal- 
hash-baz — The  promised  DeUverer. 

CHAPTER    XXIV 

THE   APOSTASIES    OF    AHAZ     ......    273 

Moloch-worship — Sacrifice  of  children — Ahaz  appeals  to 
Assyria  for  help — Ruin  of  Damascus  and  death  of  Rezin — 
Ahaz  does  homage  to  Tiglath-Pileser  at  Damascus — Records 
of  Tiglath-Pileser — The  new  altar — Complaisance  of  the  priest 
Urijah — Unpopularity  of  Ahaz — Further  misgivings  —  His 
death. 

CHAPTER    XXV 

HEZEKIAH    (B.C.    715-686) 287 

Dates — Importance  of  the  reign — Hezekiah's  age — His  cha- 
racter— His  reformation — Partial  suppression  of  the  bamoth — 
Removal  of  the  matstseboth  and  Asherim — Destruction  of  the 
brazen  serpent — Trust  in  Jehovah — Psalm  xlvi. — Chastise- 
*  ment  of  the  Philistines — Three  parties  in  Jerusalem — i.  The 
Assyrian  party — 2.  The  Egyptian  party — 3.  The  national 
party — Its  attitude  to  the  others — Micah — Mockery  of  Egypt 
— Anger  and  insults  of  the  priests  against  Isaiah — Confidence 
of  Isaiah — Waverings  of  Hezekiah. 

CHAPTER    XXVI 
hezekiah's    sickness — THE    BABYLONIAN    EMBASSY  .    305 

The  story  of  Hezekiah's  illness  misplaced^At  the  point  ot 
death — Isaiah's  message — The  king's  agony  of  mind — The 
prayer — The  reprieve — The  sun-dial  of  Ahaz — The  king's 
gratitude  and  thanksgiving  —  Merodach-Baladan  —  Rising 
power  of  Babylon — Object  of  the  embassy — The  king's  action 
— The  prophet's  reproof — The  king's  humble  submission. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    XXVII 

PAGE 

HEZEKIAH    AND    ASSYRIA    (b.C.    701)         ....    3I9 

Greatness  of  Sargon— His  campaigns — Defeat  of  Egypt  at 
the  battle  of  Raphia — Ashdod — Defeat  of  Merodach-Baladan 
— Grandeur  of  Sennacherib — His  invasion  of  Judaea — Earlier 
collisions — His  campaigns — i.  Against  Babylon — 2.  Against 
Elam — 3.  Against  the  Hittites  and  Philistines — Defeat  of  the 
Ethiopian  Tirhakah  at  Altaqu — Heavy  mulct  imposed  on 
Hezekiah — Siege  of  Lachish — Sennacherib  breaks  his  com- 
pact— Distress  o      erusalem, 

CHAPTER    XXVIII 
THE   GREAT   DELIVERANCE    (B.C.    701)    .     '       .  .  .    331 

Embassy  of  the  Turtan,  the  Rabsaris,  and  the  Rabshakeh 
— Misery  and  licence  in  the  city — The  conference — Oration  of 
the  Rabshakeh — Its  effect  on  the  king's  ministers  and  on  the 
people — Taunting  insults  of  the  Rabshakeh — Faithfulness 
and  self-control  of  the  people — Heroic  faith  of  Isaiah — Failure 
of  the  embassy — Sennacherib's  threatening  letter — Hezekiah's 
prayer — Isaiah  promises  deliverance  in  the  name  of  Jehovah 
— The  sign — The  angel  of  death— Scene  of  the  catastrophe — 
The  Egyptian  tradition  of  Sethos  and  the  mice — Death  and 
burial  of  Hezekiah — The  campaign  as  recorded  on  the  Assyrian 
monuments — The  triumph  of  indomitable  faith — Grandeur  of 
Isaiah — Wane  of  Assyria — Beautiful  tolerance  of  Isaiah. 

CHAPTER    XXIX 
MANASSEH    (b.C.    686-64 1 ) 35  ^ 

The  name  Manasseh — His  tender  age — Influence  of  evil 
counsellors— Heathenising  party — Their  dislike  of  Hezekiah's 
reformation  and  of  the  exclusive  w^orship  of  Jehovah  — 
Tendency  to  trust  in  sacrifices  and  asceticism — Sanctification 
of  licence— Arguments  of  the  heathenisers — Disparagement 
of  the  work  of  Isaiah — Doubts  and  disbelief— Influence  of 
the  banioth-^riesis — Reliance  on  Assyria — The  immoral  and 
idolatrous  reaction — I.  Restoration  of  the  bamolh,  and  argu- 
ments   in    their    favour — 2.  Adoption    of   Phoenician    nature- 


CONTENTS 


worship — 3.  Assyrian  Sabaism  and  star-worship — Connivance 
of  the  priests — 4.  Canaanite  Moloch -worship — 5.  Mesopota- 
mian  Shamanism — 6.  The  Asherah — Denunciation  of  the 
prophets — Persecution  and  the  shedding  of  innocent  blood 
— Asserted  captivity,  repentance,  and  reforming  energy  of 
Manasseh — Difficulties  of  the  story — Reign  of  Amon  (b.c, 
641-639) — Wretchedness  of  his  reign — Zephaniah  and  Jere- 
miah— Murder  of  Amon. 

CHAPTER    XXX 

JOSIAH   (b.c.    639-608) 374 

Three  vast  movements — Jeremiah's  earlier  prophecies — The 
state  of  society — The  Scythians — Prophecies  of  Ezekiel — 
Herodotus — The  fate  of  Nineveh — Rise  of  the  Chaldaeans — 
Habakkuk. 

CHAPTER    XXXI 
josiah's  reformation 385 

Growth  of  Josiah's  character — Repairs  of  the  Temple — Hil- 
kiah  finds  the  Book  of  the  Law — Intense  effect  produced  on 
mind  of  the  king — His  message  to  the  prophetess  Huldah — 
Great  assembly — Renewal  of  a  solemn  league  and  covenant 
with  Jehovah — The  Artwo//«-priests  degraded — Defiling  of 
Tophet — He  carries  the  reformation  into  Samaria — Its  strin- 
gency and  severity — The  Passover — Suppression  of  heathen 
corruptions — Jeremiah's  share  in  the  reformation — Its  dangers 
and  disappointing  results — Jeremiah's  warnings  against  all 
trust  in  externals — -The  prophecy  of  a  new  covenant — Note 
TO  Chapter  XXXI. :  The  Book  found  in  the  Temple. 

CHAPTER    XXXII 

THE    DEATH    OF   JOSIAH    (b.C.    608)  ....    402 

Prosperity  and  happiness  of  Josiah — Accession  of  the  great 
Pharaoh  Necho  II.^His  excursion  against  Carchemish — Josiah 
determines  to  bar  his  path — Warnings  of  Pharaoh  Necho — 
Disaster  at  Megiddo  and  death  of  Josiah — ^Mistaken  hopes 
— God's  dealings  with  men  and  nations — Distress  among 
Josiah's  subjects — The  king's  burial — Misgivings  respecting 
the  future — Sorrow  of  Jeremiah — Ultimate  fulfilments. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    XXXIII 

PAGE 

JEHOAHAZ    (b.C.    6o8)    .  .  .  .  .  .  .    41I 

Four  sons  of  Josiah — Shallum  chosen  by  the  people  of  the 
land — Elegy  of  Ezekiel — Change  of  name  from  Shallum  to 
Jehoahaz — Conquests  of  Pharaoh  Necho  II. — Jehoahaz  sum- 
moned to  Riblah — Carried  captive  by  Pharaoh  to  Egypt — 
Tribute  imposed  on  Judaea. 

CHAPTER    XXXIV 

JEHOIAKIM   (b.C.    608-597) 416 

Eliakim — His  change  of  name — Ignored  by  Ezekiel — Evil 
influences  —  .Esthetic  selfishness  and  oppressive  greed — 
Denunciation  by  Habakkuk — Denunciation  by  Jeremiah — 
Murder  of  Urijah — Threatened  murder  of  Jeremiah  averted 
by  Ahikam — Fall  of  Nineveh — Utterances  of  the  prophets — 
Rise  of  the  Chaldaeans — Nabupolassar — Defeat  of  Pharaoh 
Necho  by  Nebuchadrezzar — His  return  to  Babylon — His  in- 
vasion of  Judaea — Beginning  of  the  Babylonian  captivity — 
Jehoiakim  revolts  to  Egypt  in  spite  of  Jeremiah's  warnings 
— Imprisonment  of  Jeremiah — Baruch — The  menacing  roll — 
Alarm  of  the  princes — Rage  of  the  king — He  cuts  the  scroll 
to  pieces  and  burns  it — Wretchedness  of  the  times — A  great 
drought — Captives  of  Jerusalem — Miserable  death  of  Jehoia- 
kim— "That  which  was  found  in  him." 

CHAPTER    XXXV 

JEHOIACHIN    (b.C.    597) 431 

Bad  influence  over  him — His  brief  reign — Allusions  to  him 
by  Jeremiah  at  Jerusalem— Second  captivity — Regret  felt  for 
Jehoiachin — Did  he  die  childless  ? 

CHAPTER    XXXVI 
ZEDEKIAH,    THE    LAST    KING   OF    JUDAH    (b.C.    597-586)    437 

His  oath  to  the  King  of  Assyria — Ezekiel's  prophecies — The 
exiles  and  the  remnant — Weakness  of  Zedekiah — Continu- 
ance of  idolatry  as  described  by  Ezekiel — The  king  breaks  his 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

oath  with  Assyria — Indignation  and  warnings  of  Jeremiah — 
The  false  prophet  Hananiah — The  wooden  and  iron  yokes — 
Death  of  Hananiah — False  prophets — The  broken  covenant 
— Advance  of  Nebuchadrezzar — Belomancy  and  Babylonian 
divinations — Siege  of  Jerusalem — Gloom  of  Jeremiah's  pro- 
phecies. 

CHAPTER    XXXVII 

JEREMIAH    AND    HIS    PROPHECIES 449 

Pathos  of  Jeremiah's  lot — The  sad  epoch  in  which  he  lived — 
Religious  changes — Arrest  of  eremiah — Progress  of  the  siege 
^Zedekiah  sends  for  the  prophet — His  hardships  alleviated 
— Horrors  of  famine — Wicked  defiance — A  sudden  death — 
Anger  of  the  priests  and  nobles  against  Jeremiah — He  is  thrust 
into  a  miry  pit — Compassion  of  Ebed-Melech — Purchase  of  a 
field  at  Anathoth  —  Secret  interview  with  Zedekiah  —  It 
becomes  known— Distress  of  Zedekiah. 

CHAPTER    XXXVIII 

THE    FALL    OF    JERUSALEM    (b.C.    586)     ....    457 

Nebuzaradan  and  the  Babylonians — The  final  captivity — 
Dreadful  fate  of  Zedekiah — Prophecies  of  Ezekiel  and  Jeremiah 
— ;Sack  of  the  city — Massacre  of  the  chief  inhabitants — Burning 
of  the  city  and  Temple — Desolation — Respect  shown  by  the 
Babylonian  general  to  Jeremiah — He  decides  to  remain  with 
the  remnant  in  Judaea. 

CHAPTER    XXXIX 

GEDALIAH    (b.C.    586) 465 

Sad  parting  from  the  exiles — The  wail  at  Ramah — Geda- 
liah's  appointment  as  satrap  perhaps  due  to  Jeremiah — 
Desolation  of  Jerusalem — The  seat  of  government  removed  to 
Mizpah — A  respite  and  a  gleam  of  hope — Guerilla  bands — 
Johanan  warns  Gedaliah  against  Ishmael — ^Unsuspecting 
generosity  of  the  governor — He  receives  Ishmael  and  his 
confederates  with  hospitality — He  is  brutally  murdered — 
Massacre  of  the  pilgrims  from  Shiloh — The  horrible  well — 
Johan-an   pursues  Ishmael — His  escape — Proposal  to  migrate 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

to  Egypt — Jeremiah  consulted — His  advice  refused — Prophecy 
of  Jeremiah  at  the  khan  of  Chimham — Kindness  shown  by 
Evil-Merodach  to  Jehoiachin. 


EPILOGUE 477 

The  interest  of  the  preceding  history  and  the  great  moral 
lessons  which  it  involves — The  central  conceptions  of  Hebrew 
prophecy — The  end  of  the  whole  matter. 


APPENDIX    I 

THE    KINGS     OF     ASSYRIA,     AND     SOME     OF     THEIR     IN- 
SCRIPTIONS     487 

APPENDIX    II 

INSCRIPTION    IN  THE  TUNNEL  OF   THE    POOL    OF   SILOAM    493 
APPENDIX    III 

WAS    THERE    A    GOLDEN    CALF    AT    DAN  ?  .  .  .    494 

APPENDIX    IV 

DATES     OF     THE     KINGS     OF     ISRAEL     AND     JUDAH,     AS 

GIVEN    BY    KITTEL    AND    OTHER    MODERN    CRITICS    .    495 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


"Theoi-ies  of  inspiration  which  impaginate  the  Everlasting  Spirit, 
and  make  each  verse  a  cluster  of  objectless  and  mechanical  miracles, 
are  not  seriously  believed  by  any  one  :  the  Bible  itself  abides  in 
its  endless  power  and  unexhausted  truth.  All  that  is  not  of  asbestos 
is  being  burned  away  by  the  restless  fires  of  thought  and  criticism. 
That  which  remains  is  enough,  and  it  is  indestructible." — Bishop  of 
Derry. 


CHAPTER    I 

AHAZIAH   BEN-AHAB    OF   ISRAEL 

B.C.  855—854 

2  Kings  i.  I — 18 

"Ye  know  not  of  what  spirit  are  ye." — Luke  ix.  55. 
"  He  is  the  mediator  of  a  better  covenant,  which  hath  been  enacted 
upon  better  promises." — Heb.  viii.  6. 

AHAZIAH,  the  eldest  son  and  successor  of  Ahab, 
has  been  called  "the  most  shadowy  of  the 
Israelitish  kings."  ^  He  seems  to  have  been  in  all 
respects  one  of  the  most  weak,  faithless,  and  deplor- 
ably miserable.  He  did  but  reign  two  years — perhaps 
in  reality  little  more  than  one ;  but  this  brief  space  was 
crowded  with  intolerable  disasters.  Everything  that  he 
touched  seemed  to  be  marked  out  for  ruin  or  failure, 
and  in  character  he  showed  himself  a  true  son  of 
Jezebel  and  Ahab. 

What  results  followed  the  defeat  of  Ahab  and 
Jehoshaphat  at  Ramoth-Gilead  we  are  not  told      The 

'  Rawlinson,  Kings  of  Israel  attd  Judah,  p.  86.  "The  name  of 
Ahaziah  ('  the  Lord  talceth  hold '),  like  that  of  all  Ahab's  sons, 
testifies  to  the  fact  that  the  husband  of  Jezebel  still  worshipped 
Jehovah.  Among  the  names  of  the  judges  and  kings  before  Ahab 
in  Israel,  and  Asa  in  Judah,  scarcely  a  single  instance  occurs  of  names 
compounded  with  Jehovah;  thenceforward  they  became  the  rule" 
(Wellhausen,  Israel  and  Judah,  Es.  i,  p.  66). 

3 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


war  must  have  ended  in  terms  of  peace  of  some  kind — 
perhaps  in  the  cession  of  Ramoth-Gilead  ;  for  Ahaziah 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  disturbed  during  his  brief 
reign  by  any  Syrian  invasion.  Nor  were  there  any 
troubles  on  the  side  of  Judah.  Ahaziah's  sister  was 
the  wife  of  Jehoshaphat's  heir,  and  the  good  understand- 
ing between  the  two  kingdoms  was  so  closely  cemented, 
that  in  both  royal  houses  there  was  an  identity  of 
names — two  Ahaziahs  and  two  Jehorams. 

But  even  the  Judaean  alHance  was  marked  with 
misfortune.  Jehoshaphat's  prosperity  and  ambition,  to- 
gether with  his  firm  dominance  over  Edom — in  which 
country  he  had  appointed  a  vassal,  who  was  sometimes 
allowed  the  courtesy  title  of  king  ^ — led  him  to  emulate 
Solomon  by  an  attempt  to  revive  the  old  maritime 
enterprise  which  had  astonished  Jerusalem  with  ivory, 
and  apes,  and  peacocks  imported  from  India.  He 
therefore  built  **  ships  of  Tarshish  "  at  Ezion-Geber  to 
sail  to  Ophir.  They  were  called  **  Tarshish-ships," 
because  they  were  of  the  same  build  as  those  which 
sailed  to  Tartessus,  in  Spain,  from  Joppa.  Ahaziah 
was  to  some  extent  associated  with  him  in  the  enter- 
prise. But  it  turned  out  even  more  disastrously  than 
it  had  done  in  former  times.  So  unskilled  was  the 
seamanship  of  those  days  among  all  nations  except 
the  Phoenicians,  that  the  whole  fleet  was  wrecked  and 
shattered  to  pieces  in  the  very  harbour  of  Ezion-Geber 
before  it  had  set  sail. 

Ahaziah,  whose  affinity  with  the  King  of  Tyre 
and  possession  of  some  of  the  western  ports  had 
given  his  subjects  more  knowledge  of  ships  and 
voyages,  then  proposed  to  Jehoshaphat  that  the  vessels 


'  I  Kings  xxii.  47 ;  2  Kings  iii,  9  :  comp,  viii.  20. 


i-i8.]  AHAZIAH  BEN-AHAB  OF  ISRAEL 


should  be  manned  with  sailors  from  Israel  as  well 
as  Judah.  But  Jehoshaphat  was  tired  of  a  futile  and 
expensive  effort.  He  refused  a  partnership  which 
might  easily  lead  to  complications,  and  on  which  the 
prophets  of  Jehovah  frowned.  It  was  the  last  attempt 
made  by  the  Israelites  to  become  merchants  by  sea  as 
well  as  by  land. 

Ahaziah's  brief  reign  was  marked  by  one  immense 
humiliation.  David,  who  extended  the  dominion  of  the 
Hebrews  in  all  directions,  had  smitten  the  Moabites, 
and  inflicted  on  them  one  of  the  horrible  atrocities 
against  which  the  ill-instructed  conscience  of  men  in 
those  days  of  ignorance  did  not  revolt.^  He  had  made 
the  male  warriors  lie  on  the  ground,  and  then,  measur- 
ing them  by  lines,  he  put  eveiy  two  lines  to  death  and 
kept  one  alive.  After  this  the  Moabites  had  continued 
to  be  tributaries.  They  had  fallen  to  the  share  of 
the  Northern  Kingdom,  and  yearly  acknowledged  the 
suzerainty  of  Israel  by  paying  a  heavy  tribute  of  the 
fleeces  of  a  hundred  thousand  lambs  and  a  hundred 
thousand  rams.  But  now  that  the  warrior  Ahab  was 
dead,  and  Israel  had  been  crushed  by  the  catastrophe 
at  Ramoth-Gilead,  Mesha,  the  energetic  viceroy  of 
Moab,  seized  his  opportunity  to  revolt  and  to  break 
from  the  neck  of  his  people  the  odious  yoke.  The 
revolt  was  entirely  successful.  The  sacred  historian 
gives  us  no  details,  but  one  of  the  most  priceless  of 
modern  archaeological  discoveries  has  confirmed  the 
Scriptural   reference    by    securing    and    translating    a 

'  2  Sam.  viii.  2.  On  the  ethics  of  these  wars  of  extermination, 
such  as  are  commanded  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  were  practised  by 
Joshua,  Samuel,  Saul,  David,  and  others,  see  Josh.  vi.  17 ;  i  Sam.  xv. 
3,  33 ;  2  Sam.  viii.  2,  etc.,  and  Mozley's  Lectures  on  the  Old  Testament, 
pp.  83-103. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


fragment  of  Mesha's  own  account  of  the  annals  of  his 
reign.  We  have,  in  what  is  called  **  The  Moabite 
Stone,"  the  memorial  written  in  glorification  of  himself 
and  of  his  god  Chemosh,  "  the  abomination  of  the 
children  of  Amnion,"  by  a  contemporary  of  Ahab 
and  Jehoshaphat.^  It  is  the  oldest  specimen  which  we 
possess  of  Hebrew  writing ;  perhaps  the  only  specimen, 
except  the  Siloam  inscription,  which  has  come  down 
to  us  from  before  the  date  of  the  Exile.  It  was  dis- 
covered in  1878  by  the  German  missionary  Klein, 
amid  the  ruins  of  the  royal  city  of  Daibon  (Dibon, 
Num.  xxi.  30),  and  was  pvuxhased  for  the  Berlin 
Museum  in  1879.  Owing  to  all  kinds  of  errors  and 
intrigues,  it  did  not  remain  in  the  hands  of  its  purchaser, 
but  was  broken  into  fragments  by  the  nomad  tribe  of 
Beni  Hamide,  from  whom  it  was  in  some  way  obtained 
by  M.  Clermont-Ganneau.  There  is  no  ground  for 
questioning  its  perfect  genuineness,  though  the  dis- 
covery of  its  value  led  to  the  forgery  of  a  number 
of  spurious  and  often  indecent  inscriptions.  There 
can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  when  we  look  at  it 
we  see  before  us  the  identical  memorial  of  triumph 
which  the  Moabite  emir  erected  in  the  days  of  Ahaziah 
on  the  bamah  of  Chemosh  at  Dibon,  one  of  his  chief 
towns. 

This  document  is  supremel}^  interesting,  not  only  for 
its  historical  allusions,  but  also  as  an  illustration  of 
customs  and  modes  of  thought  which  have  left  their 
traces  in  the  records  of  the  people  of  Jehovah,  as  well 
as  in  those  of  the  people  of  Chemosh.^  Mesha  tells  us 
that  his  father  reigned  in  Dibon  for  thirty  years,  and 

'  See  Stade,  i.  86.     He  gives  a  photograph  and  translation  of  it  at 

P-  534- 

^  See  Records  of  the  Past,  xi.  1 66,  167. 


i.  1-18.]  AHAZIAH  BEN-AHAB   OF  ISRAEL  7 

that  he  succeeded.  He  reared  this  stone  to  Chemosh 
in  the  town  of  Karcha,  as  a  memorial  of  gratitude  for 
the  assistance  which  had  resulted  in  the  overthrow  of 
all  his  enemies.  Omri,  King  of  Israel,  had  oppressed 
Moab  many  days,  because  Chemosh  was  wroth  with 
his  people.  Ahaziah  wished  to  oppress  Moab  as  his 
father  had  done.  But  Chemosh  enabled  Mesha  to 
recover  Medeba,  and  afterwards  Baal-Meon,  Kirjatan, 
Ataroth,  Nebo,  and  Jahaz,  which  he  reoccupied  and 
rebuilt.  Perhaps  they  had  been  practically  abandoned 
by  all  effective  Israelite  garrisons.  In  some  of  these 
towns  he  put  the  inhabitants  under  a  ban,  and  sacrificed 
them  to  Moloch  in  a  great  slaughter.  In  Nebo  alone  he 
slew  seven  thousand  men.  Having  turned  many  towns 
into  fortresses,  he  was  enabled  to  defy  Israel  altogether, 
to  refuse  the  old  burdensome  tribute,  and  to  re-establish 
a  strong  Moabite  kingdom  east  of  the  Dead  Sea ;  for 
Israel  was  wholly  unable  to  meet  his  forces  in  the  open 
field.  Month  after  month  of  the  reign  of  the  miserable 
son  of  Ahab  must  have  been  marked  by  tidings  of 
shame,  defeat,  and  massacre. 

Added  to  these  public  calamities,  there  came  to 
Ahaziah  a  terrible  personal  misfortune.  As  he  was 
coming  down  from  the  roof  of  his  palace,  he  seems 
to  have  stopped  to  lean  against  the  lattice  of  some 
window  or  balcony  in  his  upper  chamber  in  Samaria.^ 
It  gave  way  under  his  weight,  and  he  was  hurled  down 
into  the  courtyard  or  street  below.  He  Vv^as  so  seriously 
hurt  that  he  spent  the  rest  of  his  reign  on  a  sick-bed  in 
pain  and  weakness,  and  ultimately  died  of  the  injuries 
he  had  received. 

A  succession  of  woes    so  grievous  might  well  have 


'  2   Kings  i.  2;   Heb.,  be'ad  hass'bakJfi ;   LXX.,  5td.  rod  diKTvurov; 
\u\g.,  per  caiicel/os  (comp.  i  Kings  vii.  18;  2  Chron.  iv.  12). 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


awakened  the  wretched  king  to  serious  thought.  But 
he  had  been  trained  under  the  idolatrous  influences  of 
his  mother.  As  though  it  were  not  enough  for  him  to 
walk  in  the  steps  of  Ahab,  of  Jezebel,  and  of  Jeroboam, 
he  had  the  fatuity  to  go  out  of  his  way  to  patronise 
another  and  yet  more  odious  superstition.  Ekron  was 
the  nearest  town  to  him  of  the  Philistine  Pentapolis, 
and  at  Ekron  was  established  the  local  cult  of  a  par- 
ticular Baal  known  as  Baal-Zebub  ("  the  lord  of  flies  ").' 
Flies,  which  in  temperate  countries  are  sometimes  an 
intense  annoyance,  become  in  tropical  climates  an 
intolerable  plague.  Even  the  Greeks  had  their  Zeus 
Apomuios  ("Zeus  the  averter  of  flies"),  and  some  Greek 
tribes  worshipped  Zeus  Ipuktonos  ("Zeus  the  slayer  of 
vermin"),  and  Zeus  Muiagros  and  Apomuios,  and  Apollo 
Smintheus  ("the  destroyer  of  mice  ").^  The  Romans,  too, 
among  the  numberless  quaint  heroes  of  their  Pantheon, 
had  a  certain  Myiagrus  and  Myiodes,  whose  function 
it  was  to  keep  flies  at  a  distance.^  This  fly-god,  Baal- 
Zebub  of  Ekron,  had  an  oracle,  to  whose  lying  responses 


'  LXX.,  BttaX /tutai' ^e6j' 'A/c/capcij'.  So,  too,  Jos.,  ^4»/^.,  IX.  ii.  i.  It  is 
possible  that  the  god  was  represented  holding  a  fly  as  the  type  of  pesti- 
lence, just  as  the  statue  of  Pthah  held  in  its  hands  a  mouse  (Herod., 
ii.  141).     Flies  convey  all  kinds  of  contagion  (Plin.,  H.  N.,  x.  28). 

-  Pausan.,  v.  14,  §  2. 

^  The  name,  or  a  derisive  modification  of  it,  was  given  by  the  Jews 
in  the  days  of  Christ  to  the  prince  of  the  devils.  In  Matt.  xii.  24  the 
true  reading  is  BeeXffjSoi/X,  which  perhaps  means  (in  contempt)  "  the 
lord  of  dung";  but  might  mean  "the  lord  of  the  [celestial]  habita- 
tion "  (olKode(rTr6T7]v).  Comp.  Matt.  x.  25  ;  Eph.  ii.  2  ;  "  Baal  Shamaim," 
the  Belsamen  of  Augustine  (Gesen.,  Monum.  Phaenic,  ;^8y ;  Movers, 
Phonizier,  i.  176).  For  "opprobrious  puns"  applied  to  idols,  see 
Lightfoot,  Exercitationes  ad  Matt.,  xii.  24.  The  common  word  for  idols, 
gilloolim,  is  perhaps  connected  with  galal,  "  dung."  Hitzig  thinks 
that  the  god  was  represented  under  the  symbol  of  the  Scarabceus 
pillularius,  or  dung-beetle. 


i.  1-18.]  AHAZIAH  BEN-AHAB  OF  ISRAEL  9 

the  young  and  superstitious  prince  attached  implicit 
credence.  That  a  king  of  Israel  professing  any  sort 
of  allegiance  to  Jehovah,  and  having  hundreds  of 
prophets  in  his  own  kingdom,  should  send  an  embassy 
to  the  shrine  of  an  abominable  local  divinity  in  a  town 
of  the  Philistines — whose  chief  object  of  worship  was 

"That  twice-battered  god  of  Palestine, 
Who  mourned  in  earnest  when  the  captive  ark 
Maimed  his   brute  image  on   the  grunsel  edge 
Where  he  fell  flat,  and   shamed  his  worshippers" — 

.was,  it  must  be  admitted,  an  act  of  apostasy  more  outrage- 
ously insulting  than  had  ever  yet  been  perpetrated  by 
any  Hebrew  king.  Nothing  can  more  clearly  illustrate 
the  callous  indifference  shown  by  the  race  of  Jezebel  to 
the  lessons  which  God  had  so  decisively  taught  them 
by  Elijah  and  by  Micaiah. 
But 

Quern  vidt  Dens  perire,  dementat  prius ; 

and  in  this  "  dementation  preceding  doom "  Ahaziah 
sent  to  ask  the  fly-god's  oracle  whether  he  should 
recover  of  his  injury.  His  infatuated  perversity  became 
known  to  Elijah,  who  was  bidden  by  "  the  angel,"  or 
messenger,  "of  the  Lord" — which  ma}'^  only  be  the 
recognised  phrase  in  the  prophetic  schools,  putting  in  a 
concrete  and  vivid  form  the  voice  of  inward  inspiration 
— to  go  up,  apparently  on  the  road  towards  Samaria, 
and  meet  the  messengers  of  Ahaziah  on  their  way  to 
Ekron.  Where  Elijah  was  at  the  time  we  do  not  know. 
Ten  years  had  elapsed  since  the  calling  of  Elisha,  and 
four  since  Elijah  had  confronted  Ahab  at  the  door  of 
Naboth's  vineyard.  In  the  interval  he  has  not  once 
been  mentioned,  nor  can  we  conjecture  with  the  least 
certainty   whether   he    had    been    living    in    congenial 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


solitude  or  had  been  helping  to  train  the  Sons  of  the 
Prophets  in  the  high  duties  of  their  calling.  Why  he 
had  not  appeared  to  support  Micaiah  we  cannot  tell. 
Now,  at  any  rate,  the  son  of  Ahab  was  drawing  upon 
himself  an  ancient  curse  by  going  a-whoring  after 
wizards  and  familiar  spirits,  and  it  was  high  time  for 
Elijah  to  interfere.^ 

The  messengers  had  not  proceeded  far  on  their  way 
when  the  prophet  met  them,  and  sternly  bade  them  go 
back  to  their  king,  with  the  denunciation,  "  Is  it  because 
there  is  no  God  in  Israel  that  ye  go  to  inquire  of  Baal- 
Zebub,  the  god  of  Ekron  ?  Now,  therefore,  thus  saith 
Jehovah,  '  Thou  shalt  not  descend  from  that  bed  on 
which  thou  art  gone  up,  but  dying  thou  shalt  die.' " 

He  spoke,  and  after  his  manner  vanished  with  no 
less  suddenness. 

The  messengers,  overawed  by  that  startling  apparition, 
did  not  dream  of  daring  to  disobey.  They  at  once  went 
back  to  the  king,  who,  astonished  at  their  reappearance 
before  they  could  possibly  have  reached  the  oracle, 
asked  them  why  they  had  returned. 

They  told  him  of  the  apparition  by  which  they  had 
been  confronted.  That  it  was  a  prophet  who  had 
spoken  to  them  they  knew ;  but  the  appearances  of 
Elijah  had  been  so  few,  and  at  such  long  intervals,  that 
they  knew  not  who  he  was. 

"  What  sort  of  man  was  he  that  spoke  to  you  ?  " 
asked  the  king. 

"  He  was,"  they  answered,  "  a  lord  of  hair,^  and 
girded  about  his  loins  with  a  girdle  of  skin."^ 


'  Lev.  XX.  6. 

2  "lyb'  b^2  (LXX.,  Sa<7vs),  whether  in  reference  to  his  long  shaggy 
locks,  or  his  sheepskin  addereth,  /iriXuTri  (Zech.  xiii.  4  ;  Heb.  xii.  37). 
^  ^ihvT}  dep/xuTivT]  (Matt.  iii.  4). 


i.  i-iS.]  AHAZIAH  BEN-AHAB   OF  ISRAEL 


Too  well  did  Ahaziah  recognise  from  this  description 
the  enemy  of  his  guilty  race !  If  he  had  not  been 
present  on  Carmel,  or  at  Jezreel,  on  the  occasions  when 
that  swart  and  shaggy  figure  of  the  awful  Wanderer 
had  confronted  his  father,  he  must  have  often  heard 
descriptions  of  this  strange  Bedawy  ascetic  who  "  feared 
man  so  little  because  he  feared  God  so  much." 

"  It  is  Elijah  the  Tishbite !  "  he  exclaimed,  with  a 
bitterness  which  was  succeeded  by  fierce  wrath ;  and 
with  something  of  his  mother's  indomitable  rage  he 
sent  a  captain  with  fifty  soldiers  to  arrest  him. 
-  The  captain  found  Elijah  sitting  at  the  top  of  "  the 
hill,"  perhaps  of  Carmel ;  and  what  followed  is  thus 
described  : — 

"Thou  man  of  God,"  he  cried,  "the  king  hath  said, 
Come  down." 

There  was  something  strangely  incongruous  in  this 
rude  address.  The  title  "  man  of  God  "  seems  first  to 
have  been  currently  given  to  Elijah,  and  it  recognises 
his  inspired  mission  as  well  as  the  supernatural  power 
which  he  was  believed  to  wield.  How  preposterous, 
then,  was  it  to  bid  a  man  of  God  to  obey  a  king's  order 
and  to  give  himself  up  to  imprisonment  or  death  1 

"  If  I  be  a  man  of  God,"  said  Elijah,  "  then  let  fire 
come  down  from  heaven,  to  consume  thee  and  thy 
fifty."  1 

The  fire  fell  and  reduced  them  all  to  ashes.^ 

Undeterred  by  so  tremendous  a  consummation,  the 
king  sent  another  captain  with  his  fifty,  who  repeated 
the  order  in  terms  yet  more  imperative.^ 


'  There  is   perhaps  an   intentional  play  of  words  between   "man 
(B^\S)  of  God  "  and  "  fire  ('tJ'N)  of  God  "  (Klostermann). 

-  Hebrew.  ^  "Come  down  quickly"  (2  Kings  i.  9). 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Again  Elijah  called  down  the  fire  from  heaven,  and 
the  second  captain  with  his  fifty  soldiers  was  reduced 
to  ashes. 

For  the  third  time  the  obstinate  king,  whose  infatua- 
tion must  indeed  have  been  transcendent,  despatched 
a  captain  with  his  fifty.  But  he,  warned  by  the  fate 
of  his  predecessors,  went  up  to  Elijah  and  fell  on  his 
knees,  and  implored  him  to  spare  the  life  of  himself 
and  his  fifty  innocent  soldiers. 

Then  "  the  angel  of  the  Lord  "  bade  Elijah  go  down 
to  the  king  with  him  and  not  be  afraid. 

What  are  we  to  think  of  this  narrative  ? 

Of  course,  if  we  are  to  judge  it  on  such  moral  grounds 
as  we  learn  from  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  Christ  Himself 
■has  taught  us  to  condemn  it.  There  have  been  men 
who  so  hideously  misunderstood  the  true  lessons  of 
revelation  as  to  applaud  such  deeds,  and  hold  them  up 
for  modern  imitation.  The  dark  persecutors  of  the 
Spanish  Inquisition,  nay,  even  men  like  Calvin  and 
Beza,  argued  from  this  scene  that  "  fire  is  the  proper 
instrument  for  the  punishment  of  heretics."  To  all 
who  have  been  thus  misled  by  a  false  and  superstitious 
theory  of  inspiration,  Christ  Himself  says,  with  unmis- 
takable plainness,  as  He  said  to  the  Sons  of  Thunder 
at  Engannim,  "  Ye  know  not  what  spirit  ye  are  of 
1  am  not  come  to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to  save."  '  In 
the   abstract,  and  judged  by  Christian  standards,   the 


'  Luke  ix.  51-56.  This  is  a  more  than  sufficient  answer  to  the 
censure  of  Theodoret,  that  "they  who  condemn  the  prophet  are 
wagging  their  tongues  against  God."  The  remark  is  based  on  utter 
misapprehension;  and  if  we  are  to  form  no  judgment  on  the  morality 
of  Scripture  examples,  they  would  be  of  no  help  for  us.  Compare  the 
striking  remark  of  the  minister  to  Balfour  of  Burleigh  in  Scott's 
Old  Mortality. 


i.  1-18.]  AHAZIAH  BEN-AHAB   OF  ISRAEL  13 

calling  down  of  lightning  to  consume  more  than  a 
hundred  soldiers,  who  were  but  obeying  the  orders 
of  a  king — the  protection  of  personal  safety  by  the 
miraculous  destruction  of  a  king's  messengers — could 
only  be  regarded  as  a  deed  of  horror.  "  There  are  few 
tracks  of  Elijah  that  are  ordinary  and  fit  for  common 
feet,"  says  Bishop  Hall ;  and  he  adds,  "  Not  in  his  own 
defence  would  the  prophet  have  been  the  death  of  so 
many,  if  God  had  not,  by  a  peculiar  instinct,  made  him 
an  instrument  of  His  just  vengeance."  ^ 

For  myself,  I  more  than  doubt  whether  we  have  any 
right  to  appeal  to  these  "  peculiar  instincts  "  and  unre- 
corded inspirations ;  and  it  is  so  important  that  we 
should  not  form  utterly  false  views  of  what  Scripture 
does  and  does  not  teach,  that  we  must  once  more  deal- 
with  this  narrative  quite  plainly,  and  not  beat  about 
the  bush  with  the  untenable  devices  and  effeminate 
euphemisms  of  commentators,  who  give  us  the  "  to-and- 
fro-conflicting  "  apologies  of  a  priori  theory  instead  of 
the  clear  judgments  of  inflexible  morality. 

"  It  is  impossible  not  to  feel,"  says  Professor  Milligan,^ 
"that  the  events  thus  presented  to  us  are  of  a  very 
startling  kind,  and  that  it  is  not  easy  to  reconcile  them 
either  with  the-  conception  that  we  form  of  an  honoured 
servant  of  God,  or  with  our  ideas  of  eternal  justice. 
Elijah  rather  appears  to  us  at  first  sight  as  a  proud, 
arrogant,  and  merciless  wielder  of  the  power  committed 
to  him  :  we  wonder  that  an  answer  should  have  been 
given  to  his  prayer ;  we  are  shocked  at  the  destruction 
of  so  many  men,  who  listened  only  to  the  command 
of  their  captain  and  their  king ;  and  we  cannot  help 
contrasting    Elijah's    conduct,   as   a   whole,    with   the 

'  Quoted  by  Rev.  Professor  Lumby,  ad  loc. 
-  Elijah,  p.  146. 


14  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

beneficent  and  loving  tenderness  of  the  New  Testament 
dispensation." 

Professor  Milligan  proceeds  rightly  to  set  aside  the 
attempts  which  have  been  made  to  represent  the  first 
two  captains  and  their  fifties  as  especially  guilty — 
which  is  a  most  flimsy  hypothesis,  and  would  not  in 
any  case  touch  the  heart  of  the  matter.  He  says  that 
the  event  stands  on  exactly  the  same  footing  as  the 
slaughter  of  the  450  prophets  of  Baal  at  Kishon, 
and  of  the  3000  idolaters  by  order  of  Moses  at  Sinai ; 
the  swallowing  up  of  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram  ;  the 
ban  of  total  extirpation  on  Jericho  and  on  Canaan ; 
the  sweeping  massacre  of  the  Amalekites  by  Saul ; 
and  many  similar  instances  of  recorded  savagery. 
But  the  reference  to  analogous  acts  furnishes  no  justi- 
fication for  those  acts.  What,  then,  is  their  justification, 
if  any  can  be  found  ? 

Some  would  defend  them  on  the  grounds  that  the 
potter  may  do  what  he  likes  with  the  clay.  That 
analogy,  though  perfectly  admissible  when  used  for  the 
purpose  to  which  it  is  applied  by  St.  Paul,  is  grossly 
inapplicable  to  such  cases  as  this.  St.  Paul  uses  it 
simply  to  prove  that  we  cannot  judge  or  understand 
the  purposes  of  God,  in  which,  as  he  •  shows,  mercy 
often  lies  behind  apparent  severity.  But,  when  urged 
to  maintain  the  rectitude  of  sweeping  judgments  in 
which  a  man  arms  his  own  feebleness  with  the 
omnipotence  of  Heaven,  they  amount  to  no  more 
than  the  tyrant's  plea  that  "  might  makes  right." 
"  Man  is  a  reed,"  said  Pascal,  "  but  he  is  a  thinking 
reed."  He  may  not  therefore  be  indiscriminately 
crushed.  He  was  made  by  God  in  His  image,  after 
His  likeness,  and  therefore  his  rights  have  a  Divine 
and  indefeasible  sanction. 


i.  i-iH.]  AlIAZIAH  BEN- AH  AS   OF  ISRAEL  15 


All  that  can  be  said  is  that  these  deeds  of  wholesale 
severity  were  not  in  disaccord  with  the  conscience 
even  of  many  of  the  best  Old  Testament  saints.  They 
did  not  feel  the  least  compunction  in  inflicting  judg- 
ments on  whole  populations  in  a  way  which  would 
argue  in  us  an  infamous  callousness.  Nay,  their  con- 
sciences approved  of  those  deeds ;  they  were  but  acting 
up  to  the  standard  of  their  times,  and  they  regarded 
themselves  as  righteous  instruments  of  divinely  directed 
vengeance.^  Take,  for  instance,  the  frightful  Eastern 
law  which  among  the  Jews  no  less  than  among 
Babylonians  and  Persians  thought  nothing  of  over- 
whelming the  innocent  with  the  guilty  in  the  same 
catastrophe  ;  which  required  the  stoning,  not  only  of 
Achan,  but  of  all  Achan's  innocent  family,  as  an  ex- 
piation for  his  theft ;  and  the  stoning,  not  only  of 
Naboth,  but  also  of  Naboth's  sons,  in  requital  for  his 
asserted  blasphemy.  Two  reasons  may  be  assigned 
for  the  chasm  between  their  moral  sense  and  ours  on 
such  subjects — one  was  their  amazing  indifference  to 
the  sacredness  of  human  life,  and  the  other  their 
invariable  habit  of  regarding  men  in  their  corporate 
relations  rather  than  in  their  individual  capacity.  Our 
conscience  teaches  us  that  to  slay  the  innocent  with 
the  guilty  is  an  action  of  monstrous  injustice  ;  ^  but 
they,  regarding  each  person  as  indissolubly  mixed  up 
with  all  his  family  and  tribe,  magnified  the  conception 


'  This  is  practically  the  sum-total  of  the  answer  given  again  and 
again  by  Canon  Mozley  in  his  Lectures  on  the  Old  Testament,  2nd 
edition,  1878.  For  instance,  he  says  that  "the  Jewish  idea  of 
justice  gives  us  the  reason  why  the  Divine  commands  (of  exter- 
minating wars,  etc.)  were  then  adapted  to  man  as  the  agent  for 
executing  them,    and   are  not  adapted   now"  (p.   102). 

-  Comp.  Ezek.  xviii.  2-30. 


l6  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

of  corporate  responsibility ,   and  merged   the  individual 
in  the  mass. 

It  is  clear  that,  if  we  take  the  narrative  literally, 
Elijah  would  not  have  felt  the  least  remorse  in  calling 
fire  from  heaven  to  consume  these  scores  of  soldiers, 
because  the  prophetic  narrator  who  recorded  the  story, 
perhaps  two  centuries  later,  must  have  understood 
the  spirit  of  those  days,  and  certainly  felt  no  shame 
for  the  prophet's  act  of  yengeance.  On  the  contrary, 
he  relates  it  with  entire  approval  for  the  glorification 
of  his  hero.  We  cannot  blame  him  for  not  rising 
above  the  moral  standard  of  his  age.  He  held  that 
the  natural  manifestation  of  an  angry  Jehovah  was, 
literally  or  metaphorically,  in  consuming  fire.  Con- 
sidering the  slow  education  of  mankind  in  the  most 
elementary  principles  of  mercy  and  righteousness,  we 
must  not  judge  the  views  of  prophets  who  lived  so 
many  ages  before  Christ  by  those  of  religious  teachers 
who  enjoy  the  inherited  experience  of  two  millenniums 
of  Christianity.  Thus  much  is  plainly  taught  us  by 
Christ  Himself,  and  there  perhaps  we  might  be  con- 
tent to  leave  the  question.  But  we  are  compelled 
to  ask,  Do  we  not  too  much  form  all  our  judgments 
of  the  Scripture  narratives  on  a  priori  traditions  and 
unreasoned  prejudices  ?  Can  we  with  adequate  know- 
ledge and  honest  conviction  declare  our  certainty 
that  this  scene  of  destruction  ever  occurred  as  a 
literal  fact  ?  If  we  turn  to  any  of  the  great  students 
and  critics  of  Germany,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for 
the  floods  of  light  which  their  researches  have  thrown 
on  the  sacred  page,  they  with  almost  consentient  voice 
regard  these  details  of  this  story  as  legendary.  There 
is  indeed  every  reason  to  believe  the  account  of  Ahaziah's 
accident,  of  his  sending  to  consult  the  oracle  of  Baal- 


i.  1-18.]  AHAZIAH  BEN-AHAB  OF  ISRAEL  17 

Zebub,  of  the  turning  back  of  his  messengers  by 
Elijah,  and  of  the  menace  which  he  heard  from  the 
prophet's  Hps.  But  the  calHng  down  of  lightning  to 
consume  his  captains  and  soldiers  to  ashes  belongs  to 
the  cycle  of  Elijah-traditions  preserved  in  the  schools 
of  the  prophets  ;  and  in  the  case  of  miracles  so  startling 
and  to  our  moral  sense  so  repellent — miracles  which 
assume  the  most  insensate  folly  on  the  part  of  the 
king,  and  the  most  callous  ruthlessness  on  the  part  of 
the  prophet — the  question  may  be  fairly  asked,  Is 
there  any  proof,  is  there  anything  beyond  dogmatic 
assertion  to  convince  us,  that  we  were  intended  to 
accept  them  au  pied  de  la  lettre  ?  May  they  not  be 
the  formal  vehicle  chosen  for  the  illustration  of  the  un- 
doubted powers  and  righteous  mission  of  Elijah  as  the 
upholder  of  the  worship  of  Jehovah  ?  In  a  literature 
which  abounds,  as  all  Eastern  literature  abounds,  in 
vivid  and  concrete  methods  of  indicating  abstract  truths, 
have  we  any  cogent  proof  that  the  supernatural  details, 
of  which  some  may  have  been  introduced  into  these 
narratives  by  the  scribes  in  the  schools  of  the  prophets, 
were  not,  in  some  instances,  meant  to  be  regarded  as 
imaginative  apologues  ?  The  most  orthodox  divines, 
both  Jewish  and  Christian,  have  not  hesitated  to  treat 
the  Book  of  Jonah  as  an  instance  of  the  use  of  fiction 
for  purposes  of  moral  and  spiritual  edification.  Were 
any  critic  to  maintain  that  the  story  of  the  destruction 
of  Ahaziah's  emissaries  belongs  to  the  same  class  of 
narratives,  I  do  not  know  how  he  could  be  refuted, 
however  much  he  might  be  denounced  by  stereotyped 
prejudice  and  ignorance.  I  do  not,  however,  myself 
regard  the  story  as  a  mere  parable  composed  to  show 
how  awful  was  the  power  of  the  prophets,  and  how 
fearfully  it  might  be  exercised.     I  look  upon  it  rather 

2 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


as  possibly  the  narrative  of  some  event  which  has 
been  imaginatively  embellished,  and  intermingled  with 
details  which  we  call  supernatural.^  Circumstances 
which  we  consider  natural  would  be  regarded  as 
directly  miraculous  by  an  Eastern  enthusiast,  who  saw 
in  every  event  the  immediate  act  of  Jehovah  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  secondary  causes,  and  who  attributed 
every  ocurrence  of  life  to  the  intervention  of  those 
"millions  of  spiritual  creatures,"  who 

"  walk  the  earth 
Unseen  both  when  we  wake  and  when  we  sleep." 

If  such  a  supposition  be  correct  and  admissible — and 
assuredly  it  is  based  on  all  that  we  increasingly  learn 
of  the  methods  of  Eastern  literature,  and  of  the  forms 
in  which  religious  ideas  were  inculcated  in  early  ages 
— then  all  difficulties  are  removed.  We  are  not  dealing 
with  the  mercilessness  of  a  prophet,  or  the  wielding  of 
Divine  powers  in  a  manner  which  higher  revelation 
condemns,  but  only  with  the  well-known  fact  that  the 
Elijah-spirit  was  not  the  Christ-spirit,  and  that  the 
scribes  of  Ramah  or  Gilgal,  and  "  the  men  of  the 
tradition  "  and  the  "  men  of  letters  "  who  lived  at  Jabez, 
when  they  used  the  methods  of  Targum  and  Haggadah 
in  handing  down  the  stories  of  the  prophets,  had  not 
received  that  full  measure  of  enlightenment  which 
came  only  when  the  Light  of  the  World  had  shone.^ 

'  For  the  idea  involved  see  Num.  xi.  i  ;  Deut.  iv.  24;  Psalm  xxi.  9; 
Isa.  xxvi.  II ;  Heb.  x.  27,  etc. 

'^  I  Chron.  ii.  55,  where  "  Shimeathites "  means  "  mm  of  the 
tradition,"'  and   "  scribes,'"  "  men  of  letters." 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  ASCENSION  OF  ELIJAH 

2  Kings  ii.  i — 18 

'HXt'as  t'^  avOpwiroiv  rjcpavladri,   Arat    ovdels   i'yuia   juexp'S   Tyj^  irijfiepov 
wuTOv  T7)v  TeKeirriv. — Jos.,  Antt.,  IX.  ii.  2. 

Veydvaaiv  a.<paveh,  davarov  5e  avrQu  ov8eis  oldev. — St.  Ephr^em  Syrus. 

THE  date  of  the  assuiHptien  of  Elijah  is  wholly 
uncertain,  and  it  becomes  still  more  so  because 
of  the  confusion  of  chronological  order  which  i-esults 
from  the  composite  character  of  the  records  here 
collected.  It  appears  from  various  scattered  notices 
that  Elijah  lived  on  till  the  reign  of  Jehoram  of  Judah, 
whereas  the  narrative  in  this  chapter  is  placed  before 
the  death  of  Jehoshaphat, 

When  the  time  came  that  "  Jehovah  would  take  up 
Elijah  by  a  whirlwind  into  heaven,"  the  prophet  had  a 
prevision  of  his  approaching  end,  and  determined  for 
the  last  time  to  visit  the  hills  of  his  native  Gilead. 
The  story  of  his  end,  though  not  written  in  rhythm, 
is  told  in  a  style  of  the  loftiest  poetry,  resembling  other 
ancient  poems  in  its  simple  and  solemn  repetitions. 
On  his  way  to  Gilead,  Elijah  desires  to  visit  ancient 
sanctuaries  where  schools  of  the  prophets  were  now 
established,  and  accompanied  by  Elisha,  whose  faithful 
ministrations  he  had  enjoyed  for  ten  almost  silent 
years,  he  went  to  Gilgal,     This  was  not  the  Gilgal  in 

19 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


the  Jordan  valley  so  famous  in  the  days  of  Joshua/  but 
Jiljilia  in  the  hills  of  Ephraim,^  where  many  young 
prophets  were  in  course  of  training.^ 

Knowing  that  he  was  on  his  way  to  death,  Elijah 
felt  the  imperious  instinct  which  leads  the  soul  to  seek 
solitude  at  the  supreme  crises  of  life.  He  would  have 
preferred  that  even  Elisha  should  leave  him,  and  he 
bade  him  stop  at  Gilgal,  because  the  Lord  had  sent 
him  as  far  as  Bethel.  But  Elisha  was  determined  to 
see  the  end,  and  exclaimed  with  strong  asseveration, 
"  As  Jehovah  liveth,  and  as  thy  soul  liveth,  I  will  not 
leave  thee." 

So  they  went  on  to  Bethel,  where  there  was  another 
school  of  prophets,  under  the  immediate  shadow  of 
Jeroboam's  golden  calf,  though  we  are  not  told  whether 
they  continued  the  protest  of  the  old  nameless  seer 
from  Judah,  or  not.*  Here  the  youths  of  the  college 
came  respectfully  to  Elisha — for  they  were  prevented 
by  a  sense  of  awe  from  addressing  Elijah — and  asked 
him  "whether  he  knew  that  that  day  God  would  take 
away  his  master."  "Yes,  I  know  it,"  he  answers; 
but — for  this  is  no  subject  for  idle  talk — "  hold  ye 
your  peace." 

Once  more  Elijah  tries  to  shake  off  the  attendance 
of  his  friend  and  disciple.  He  bids  him  stay  at  Bethel, 
since  Jehovah  has  sent  him  on  to  Jericho.  Once  more 
Elisha  repeats    his  oath    that   he  will   not    leave  him, 


•  Josh.  iv.  19;  V.  9,  10. 

'•^  Deut.  xi.  30.  It  is  on  a  hill  south-west  of  .Shiloh  (S«7m«),  near 
the  road  to  Jericho  (Hos.  iv.  15;  Amos  iv.  4).  The  name  means  "a 
circle,"  and  there  may  have  been  an  ancient  circle  of  sacred  stones 
there. 

'  2  Kings  iv.  38. 

^  I  Kings  xiii. 


ii.  1-18.]  THE  ASCENSION  OF  ELIJAH  21 

and  once  more  the  sons  of  the  prophets  at  Jericho, 
who  warn  him  of  what  is  coming,  are  told  to  say  no 
more. 

But  little  of  the  journey  now  remains.  In  vain 
Elijah  urges  Elisha  to  stay  at  Jericho ;  they  proceed 
to  Jordan.  Conscious  that  some  great  event  is  im- 
pending, and  that  Elijah  is  leaving  these  scenes  for 
ever,  fifty  of  the  sons  of  the  prophets  watch  the  two 
as  they  descend  the  valley  to  the  river.  Here  they 
saw  Elijah  take  off  his  mantle  of  hair,  roll  it  up,  and 
smite  the  waters  with  it.  The  waters  part  asunder, 
and  the  prophets  pass  over  dry-shod.^  As  they  crossed 
over  Elijah  asks  Elisha  what  he  should  do  for  him, 
and  Elisha  entreats  that  a  double  portion  of  Elijah's 
spirit  may  rest  upon  him.  By  this  he  does  not  mean 
to  ask  for  twice  Elijah's  power  and  inspiration,  but 
only  for  an  elder  son's  portion,  which  was  twice  what 
was  inherited  by  the  younger  sons.''  "Thou  hast 
asked  a  hard  thing,"  said  Elijah ;  "  but  if  thou  seest 
me  when  I  am  taken  hence,  it  shall  be  so." 

The  sequel  can  be  only  told  in  the  words  of  the 
text :  **  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  they  still  went  on,  and 
talked,  that,  behold,  there  appeared  a  chariot   of  fire, 


'  As  there  are  fords  at  Jericho,  the  object  of  this  miracle,  as  of  the 
one  subsequently  ascribed  to  Elisha,  is  not  self-evident.  Nothing 
is  more  certain  than  that  there  is  a  Divine  economy  in  the  exercise 
of  supernatural  powers.  The  pomp  and  prodigality  of  superfluous 
portents  belong,  not  to  Scripture,  but  to  the  Acta  sanctorum,  and  the 
saint-stories  of  Arabia  and  India. 

*  Deut.  xxi.  17.  The  Hebrew  is  D,''JK'"''3j  "a  mouthful,  or  ration  of 
two."  Comp.  Gen.  xliii.  34.  Even  Ewald's  "■  Nur  Zweidrittel  und  auch 
diese  kaum"  is  too  strong  {Gesch.,  iii.  517).  In  no  sense  was  Elisha 
greater  than  Elijah  :  he  wrought  more  wonders,  but  he  left  little  of 
his  teaching,  and  produced  on  the  mind  of  his  nation  a  far  less  strong 
impression. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


and  horses  of  fire/  and  parted  them  both  asunder  ;  and 
Elijah  went  up  by  a  whirlwind  into  heaven.  And 
Elisha  saw  it,  and  he  cried,  *  My  father,  my  father,  the 
chariots  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof!'^  And 
he  saw  him  no  more." 

Respecting  the  manner  in  which  Elijah  ended  his 
earthly  career,  we  know  nothing  beyond  what  is  con- 
veyed by  this  splendid  narrative.  His  death,  like  that 
of  Moses,  was  surrounded  by  mystery  and  miracles, 
and  we  can  say  nothing  further  about  it.  The  question 
must  still  remain  unanswered  for  many  minds  whether 
it  was  intended  by  the  prophetic  annalists  for  literal 
history,  for  spiritual  allegory,  or  for  actual  events 
bathed  in  the  colourings  of  an  imagination  to  which 
the  providential  assumed  the  aspect  of  the  super- 
natural.^ We  are  twice  told  that  "  Elijah  went  up  by 
a  whirlwind  into  heaven,"'*  and  in  that  storm— -which 
would  have  seemed  a  fit  scene  for  the  close  of  a  career 
of  storm — God,  in  the  high  poetry  of  the  Psalmist,  may 
have  made  the  winds  His  angels,  and  the  flames  of  fire 
His  ministers.     For  us  it  must  suffice  to  say  of  Elijah, 

'  In  2  Kings  vi.  17  the  stormblast  {sd'drah)  and  chariots  and 
horses  of  fire  are  part  of  a  vision  of  the  Divine  protection.  Comp. 
Isa.  Ixvi.  15;  Job  xxxviii.  I  ;  Nah.  i.  3;   Psalms  xviii.  6-15,  civ.  3. 

"  That  is,  the  protection  and  defence  of  Israel  by  thy  prayers. 

^  Even  the  Church-father  St.  Ephrsem  Syrus  evidently  felt  some 
misgivings.  He  says  :  "  Suddenly  there  came  from  the  height  a  storm 
of  fire,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  flame  the  form  of  a  chariot  and  horses, 
and  parted  them  both  asunder  ;  the  one  of  them  it  left  on  the  earth, 
the  other  it  carried  to  the  height ;  but  whether  the  wind  carried  him, 
or  in  what  place  it  left  him,  the  Scripture  has  not  informed  us,  but 
it  says  that  after  some  years,  a  terrifying  letter  from  him  full  of 
menaces,  was  delivered  to  King  Jehoram  of  Judah  "  (quoted  by  Keil 
ad  loc.)  See  2  Chron.  xxi.  12.  The  letter  is  called  "a  writing" 
(iHt'ktdb). 

*  2  Kings  ii.  II;  Ecclus.  xlviii.  12.  The  LXX.  curiously  says  iv 
ffVO'crcKT //.({}  ws  et'j  roc  oipa.vbv.     So  too  the  Rabbis,  Sucah,   f.  5. 


ii.  l-i8.]  THE  ASCENSION  OF  ELIJAH  23 

as  the  Book  of  Genesis  says  of  Enoch,  that  "  he  was 
not,  for  God  took  him." 

Ehsha  signalised  the  removal  of  his  master  by  a 
burst  of  natural  grief.  He  seized  his  garments  and  rent 
them  in  twain.  Elijah  had  dropped  his  mantle  of  skin, 
and  his  grieving  disciple  took  it  with  him  as  a  priceless 
relic.^  The  legendary  St.  Antony  bequeathed  to  St. 
Athanasius  the  only  thing  which  he  had,  his  sheep- 
skin mantle  ;  and  in  the  mantle  of  Elijah  his  successor 
inherited  his  most  characteristic  and  almost  his  sole 
possession.  He  returned  to  Jordan,  and  with  this 
mantle  he  smote  the  waters  as  Elijah  had  done.  At 
first  they  did  not  divide  ;  '^  but  when  he  exclaimed, 
"  Where  is  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Elijah,  even  He  ?  " 
they  parted  hither  and  thither.  Seeing  the  portent, 
the  sons  of  the  prophets  came  with  humble  prostrations, 
and  acknowledged  him  as  their  new  leader. 

They  were  not,  however,  satisfied  with  what  the}' 
had  seen,  or  had  heard  from  Elisha,  of  the  departure 
of  the  great  prophet,  and  begged  leave  to  send  fifty 
strong  men  to  search  whether  the  wind  of  the  Lord 
had  not  swept  him  away  to  some  mountain  or  valley. 
Elisha  at  first  refused,  but  afterwards  yielded  to  their 
persistent  importunity.  They  searched  for  three  days 
among  the  hills  of  Gilead,  but  found  him  not,  either 
living  or  dead,  as  Elisha  had  warned  them  would  be 
the  case. 

From  that  time  forward  Elijah  has  taken  his  place  in 
all  Jewish  and  Mohammedan  legends  as  the  mysterious 
and   deathless   wanderer.     Malachi   spoke    of  him   as 


'  The  circumstance  has  left  its  trace  in  the  proverbs  of  nations,  and 
in  the  German  word  Mantelkind  for  a  spiritual  successor. 

-  2  Kings  ii.  14.  LXX.,  koX  ov  Sirjpidr};  Vulg.,  Percussit  aqitas,  et 
lion  sunt  e/ivi'scp. 


24  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

destined  to  appear  again  to  herald  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah/  and  Christ  taught  His  disciples  that  John 
the  Baptist  had  come  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elijah. 
In  Jewish  legend  he  often  appears  and  disappears. 
A  chair  is  set  for  him  at  the  circumcision  of  every 
Jewish  child.  At  the  Paschal  feast  the  door  is  set  open 
for  him  to  enter.  All  doubtful  questions  are  left  for 
decision  until  he  comes  again.  To  the  Mohammedans 
he  is  known  as  the  wonder-working  and  awful  El 
Khudr.'' 

Elisha  is  mentioned  but  once  in  all  the  later  books 
of  Scripture  ;  but  Elijah  is  mentioned  many  times,  and 
the  son  of  Sirach  sums  up  his  greatness  when  he  says  : 
"  Then  stood  up  Elias  as  fire,  and  his  word  burned 
like  a  torch.  O  Elias,  how  wast  thou  honoured  in  thy 
wondrous  deeds !  and  who  ma}^  glory  like  unto  thee — 
who  anointed  kings  to  take  revenge,  and  prophets  to 
succeed  after  him — who  wast  ordained  for  reproof  in 
their  times,  to  pacify  the  wrath  of  the  Lord's  judgment 
before  it  broke  forth  into  fury,  and  to  turn  the  heart 
of  the  father  unto  the  son,  and  to  restore  the  tribes  of 
Jacob  !  Blessed  are  they  that  saw  thee  and  slept  in 
love  ;  for  we  shall  surely  live  !  " 

'  Mai.  iv.  4-6. 

^  Bava-Metsia,  f.  37,  2,  etc.  His  name  is  used  for  incantations  in 
the  Kabbala.  Kitsur  Sh'lh,  f.  71,  i  (Hershon,  Tahnudic  Miscellany, 
p.  340).  The  chair  set  for  him  is  called  "the  throne  of  Elijah." 
For  many  Rabbinic  legends  see  Hershon,  Treasures  of  the  Tahiuui, 
pp.  172-178.     The  Persians  regard  him  as  the  teacher  of  Zoroaster. 


CHAPTER   III 

ELISHA 

2  Kings  ii.   i — 25 

"  He  did  wonders  in  his  life,  and  at  death  even  his  worics  were 
marvellous.  For  all  this  the  people  repented  not."— Ecclus.  xlviii. 
14-  J5- 

AT  this  point  we  enter  into  the  cycle  of  supernatural 
stories,  which  gathered  round  the  name  of  Elisha 
in  the  prophetic  communities.  Some  of  them  are  full 
of  charm  and  tenderness  ;  but  in  some  cases  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  point  out  their  inti"insic  superiority  over  the 
ecclesiastical  miracles  with  which  monkish  historians  . 
have  embellished  the  lives  of  the  saints.  We  can  but 
narrate  them  as  they  stand,  for  we  possess  none  of  the 
means  for  critical  or  historical  analysis  which  might 
enable  us  to  discriminate  between  essential  facts  and 
accidental  elements. 

We  see  at  once  that  the  figure  of  Elisha  ^  is  far  less 
impressive  than  that  of  Elijah.  He  inspires  less  of  awe 
and  terror.  He  lives  far  more  in  cities  and  amid  the 
ordinary  surroundings  of  civilised  life.  The  honour 
with  which  he  was  treated  was  the  honour  of  respect 
and  admiration  for  his  kindliness.  He  plays  his  part 
in  no  stupendous  scenes  like  those  at  Carmel  and  at 
Horeb,  and  nearly  all  his   miracles  were   miracles   of 

'  The  name  Elisha  means  "My  God  is  salvation." 
25 


26  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

mercy.  Other  remarkable  differences  are  observable 
in  the  records  of  Elijah  and  Elisha.  In  the  case  of  the 
former  his  main  work  was  the  opposition  to  Baal- 
worship  ;  but  although  Baal-worship  still  prevailed 
(2  Kings  X.  18-27)  we  read  of  no  protests  raised  by 
Elisha  against  it.  "  With  him" — perhaps  it  should  be 
more  accurately  said,  in  the  narrative  which  tells  us  of 
him — "  the  miracles  are  everything,  the  prophetic  work 
nothing."  The  conception  of  a  prophet's  mission  in 
these  stories  of  him  differs  widely  from  that  which 
dominates  the  splendid  midrash  of  Elijah. 

His  separate  career  began  with  an  act  of  beneficence. 
He  had  stopped  for  a  time  at  Jericho.  The  curse  of 
the  rebuilding  of  the  town  upon  a  site  which  Joshua 
had  devoted  to  the  ban  had  expended  itself  on  Hiel,  its 
builder.  It  was  now  a  flourishing  city,  and  the  home 
of  a  large  school  of  prophets.  But  though  the  situation 
was  plea.sant  as  "a  garden  of  the  Lord,"^  the  water 
was  bad,  and  the  land  "miscarried."  In  other  words, 
the  deleterious  spring  caused  diseases  among  the  in- 
habitants, and  caused  the  trees  to  cast  their  fruit.  So 
the  men  of  the  city  came  to  Elisha,  and  humbly  address- 
ing him  as  "  my  lord,"  implored  his  help.  He  told  them 
to  bring  him  a  new  cruse  full  of  salt,  and  going  with 
it  to  the  fountain  cast  it  into  the  .springs,  proclaiming 
in  Jehovah's  name  that  they  were  healed,  and  that 
there  should  be  no  more  death  or  miscarrying  land. 
The  gushing  waters  of  the  Ain-es-Sultan,  fed  by  the 
spring  of  Quarantania,  are  to  this  day  pointed  out  as 
the  Fountains  of  Elisha,  as  they  have  been  since  the 
days  of  Josephus.^ 

The  anecdote  of  this  beautiful  interposition  to  help 

'  Gen.  xiii.  10.     "The  city  of  palms"  (Dcut.  xxxiv.  3). 
'•^  Jos.,  B.J.,  IV.  viii.  3  ;  Robinson,  Bibl.  Researches,  i.  554. 


ii.  1-25.]  ELISHA  27 

a  troubled  city  is  followed  by  one  of  the  stories  which 
naturally  repel  us  more  than  any  other  in  the  Old 
Testament.  Elisha,  on  leaving  Jericho,  returned  to 
Bethel,  and  as  he  climbed  through  the  forest  up  the 
ascent  leading  to  the  town  through  what  is  now  called 
the  Wady  Suweinit,  a  number  of  young  lads — with  the 
rudeness  which  in  boys  is  often  a  venial  characteristic 
of  their  gay  spirits  or  want  of  proper  training,  and  which 
to  this  day  is  common  among  boys  in  the  East — laughed 
at  him,  and  mocked  him  with  the  cry  "  Go  up,  round- 
head !  go  up,  round-head ! "  ^  What  struck  these  ill- 
bred  and  irreverent  youngsters  was  the  contrast  between 
the  rough  hair-skin  garb  and  unkempt  shaggy  locks 
of  Elijah,  "  the  lord  of  hair,"  and  the  smooth  civilised 
aspect  and  shorter  hair  of  his  disciple.  If  the  word 
quereach  means  "  bald  "  -  we  see  an  additional  reason 
for  their  ill-mannered  jeers,  since  baldness  was  a  cause 
of  reproach  and  suspicion  in  the  East,  where  it  is 
comparatively  rare.  No  doubt,  too,  the  conduct  of 
these  young  scoffers  was  the  more  offensive,  and  even 
the  more  wicked,  because  of  the  deeper  reverence  for 
age  which  prevails  in  Eastern  countries,  and  above  all 
because  Elisha  was  known  as  a  prophet.  Perhaps, 
too,  if  some  other  reading  lies  behind  the  IXidatpv 
of  one  MS.  of  the  Septuagint,   they  pelted   him  with 

'  Abarbanel's  notion  that  they  meant  "Ascend  to  heaven  as  Elijah 
did  "  is  absurd. 

'  VTP-  This  means  bald  at  the  back  of  the  head,  as  nSJ  {gibbeach), 
means  "forehead-bald"  (Ewald,  iii.  $12).  Elisha  could  not  have 
been  bald  from  old  age,  since  he  lived  on  for  nearly  sixty  years,  and 
must  have  been  a  young  man.  Baldness  involved  a  suspicion  of 
leprosy,  and  was  disliked  by  Easterns  (Lev.  xxi.  5,  xiii.  43 ; 
Isa.  iii.  17,  24,  XV.  2),  as  much  as  by  the  Romans  (Suet., /?</.  C(es.,  45  ; 
Domit.,  18).  Elisha's  prophetic  activity  lasted  through  the  reigns  of 
Joram,  Jehu,  Jehoahaz,  and  Joash  {i.e.,  12  +  28  +  17  +  2  years). 


28  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Stones.^  That  Elisha  should  have  rebuked  them,  and 
that  seriously — that  he  should  even  have  inflicted  some 
punishment  upon  them  to  reform  their  manners — would 
have  been  natural ;  but  we  cannot  repress  the  shudder 
with  which  we  read  the  verse,  "And  he  turned  back 
and  looked  on  them,  and  cursed  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord.  And  there  came  forth  two  she-bears  out 
of  the  wood,  and  tare  forty-and-two  children  of  them." 
Surely  the  punishment  was  disproportionate  to  the 
offence  I  Who  could  doom  so  much  as  a  single  rude 
boy,  not  to  speak  of  forty-two,  to  a  horrible  and 
agonising  death  for  shouting  after  any  one  ?  It  is  the 
chief  exception  to  the  general  course  of  Elisha's  com- 
passionate interpositions.  Here,  too,  we  must  leave 
the  narrative  where  it  is  ;  but  we  hold  it  quite  admissible 
to  conjecture  that  the  incident,  in  some  form  or  other, 
really  occurred — that  the  boys  were  insolent,  and  that 
some  of  them  may  have  been  killed  by  the  wild  beasts 
which  at  that  time  abounded  in  Palestine — and  yet  that 
the  nuances  of  the  story  which  cause  deepest  offence 
to  us  may  have  suffered  from  some  corruption  of  the 
tradition  in  the  original  records,  and  may  admit  of  being 
represented  in  a  slightly  different  form. 

After  this  Elisha  went  for  a  time  to  the  ancient 
haunts  of  his  master  on  Mount  Carmel,  and  thence 
returned  to  Samaria,  the  capital  of  his  country,  which 
he  seems  to  have  chosen  for  his  most  permanent 
dwelling-place. 

'  The  KariTrai^ov  of  the  Vat.  LXX.  implies  persistent  and  vehement 
insult.  The  Post-Mishnic  Rabbis,  however,  say  that  Elisha  was 
punished  with  sickness  for  this  deed  {Bava-Metsia,  f.  87,  1 ). 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  INVASION  OF  MOAB 

2  Kings  iii.  4 — 27 

"What  reinforcement  we  may  gain  from  hope, 
If  not,  what  resolution  from  despair," 

Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  i.  190. 

AHAZIAH,  as  Elijah  had  warned  him,  never  re- 
covered from  the  injuries  received  in  his  fall 
through  the  lattice,  and  after  his  brief  and  luckless 
reign  died  without  a  child.  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
brother  Jehoram  ("Jehovah  is  exalted"),  who  reigned 
for  twelve  years.  ^ 

'  There  are  great  difficulties  in  the  statement  (2  Kings  iii.  l)  that 
he  began  to  reign  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  Jehoshaphat.  I  have  not 
entered,  nor  shall  I  enter,  into  the  minute  and  precarious  conjectures 
necessitated  by  the  uncertainties  and  contradictions  of  this  syn- 
chronism introduced  into  the  narrative  by  some  editor.  Suffice  it 
that  with  the  aid  of  the  Assyrian  records  we  have  certain  points  de 
repere,  from  which  we  can,  with  the  assistance  of  the  historian, 
conjecturally  restore  the  main  data.  In  the  dates  given  at  the  head 
of  the  chapters  I  follow  Kittel,  as  a  careful  inquirer.  Some  of  the 
approximately  fixed  dates  are  (see  Appendix  I.) : — 

854.  Battle  of  Karkar  (Ahab  and  Benhadad  against  Shalmaneser  II.) 

738.  Tribute  of  Menahem  to  Tiglath-Pileser  II. 

732.  Fall  of  Damascus. 

722.  Capture  of  Samaria  by  Sargon. 

720.  Defeat  of  Sabaco  by  Sargon  in  battle  of  Raphia. 

705.  Accession  of  Sennacherib. 

701.  Campaign  against  Hezekiah. 

608.  Death  of  Josiah. 

29 


30  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Jehoram  began  well.  Though  it  is  said  that  he  did 
"  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,"  we  are 
told  that  he  was  not  so  guilty  as  his  father  or  his  mother. 
He  did  not,  of  course,  abolish  the  worship  of  Jehovah 
under  the  cherubic  symbol  of  the  calves  ;  no  king  of 
Israel  thought  of  doing  that,  and  so  far  as  we  know 
neither  Elijah,  nor  Elisha,  nor  Jonah,  nor  Micaiah,  nor 
any  genuine  prophet  of  Israel  before  Hosea,  ever 
protested  against  that  worship,  which  was  chiefly 
disparaged  by  prophets  of  Judah  like  Amos  and  the 
nameless  seer.^  But  Jehoram  at  least  removed  the 
Matstsebah  or  stone  obelisk  which  had  been  reared  in 
Baal's  honour  in  front  of  his  temple  by  Ahab,  or  by 
Jezebel  in  his  name.^  In  this  direction,  however,  his 
reformation  must  have  been  exceedingly  partial,  for 
until  the  sweeping  measures  taken  by  Jehu  the  temple 
and  images  of  Baal  still  continued  to  exist  in  Samaria 
under  his  very  eyes,  and  must  have  been  connived  at 
if  not  approved. 

The  first  great  measure  which  occupied  the  thoughts 
of  Jehoram  was  to  subdue  the  kingdom  of  Moab,  which 
had  been  restored  to  independence  by  the  bravery  of 
the  great  pastoral-king  Mesha ;  ^  or  at  any  rate  to 
avenge  the  series  of  humiliating  defeats  which  Mesha 
had  inflicted  on  his  brother  Ahaziah.  A  war  of  forty 
years'  duration*  had  ended  in  the  complete  success 
of  Moab.     The  loss  of  a  tribute  of  the  fleeces  of  one 

'  But  neither  the  man  of  God  from  Judah  nor  Amos  directly 
denounce  the  calf-worship,  so  much  as  its  concomitant  sins  and 
irregularities. 

■■^  Perhaps  the  true  reading  is  "pillars"  (LXX.,  Vulg.,  Arab.). 

'  He  is  called  "a  sheep-master,"  noked;  LXX.,  j'w/ci}5.  Elsewhere 
the  word  occurs  only  in  Amos  i.  i.  The  Alex.  LXX.  has  'fju  <})ipu)v 
<t>bpov. 

*  According  to  the  Moabite  Stone. 


iii.  4-27-]  THE  INVASION  OF  MOAB  31 

hundred  thousand  lambs  and  one  hundred  thousand 
rams  was  too  serious  to  be  Hghtly  faced. ^  Jehoram 
laid  his  plans  well.  First  he  ordered  a  muster  of  all 
the  men  of  war  throughout  his  kingdom,  and  then 
appealed  for  the  co-operation  of  Jehoshaphat  and  his 
vassal-king  of  Edom.  Botji  kings  consented  to  join 
him.  Jehoshaphat  had  already  been  the  victim  of  a 
powerful  and  wanton  aggression  on  the  part  of  King 
Mesha,^  from  which  he  had  been  delivered  by  the 
panic  of  his  foes  in  the  Valley  of  Salt.  Though  the 
king  of  Edom  had,  on  that  occasion,  been  an  ally  of 
Mesha,  the  forces  of  Edom  had  fallen  the  first  victims 
of  that  internecine  panic.  Both  Judah  and  Edom,  there- 
fore, had  grave  wrongs  to  avenge,  and  eagerly  seized 
the  opportunity  to  humble  the  growing  pride  of  the 
people  of  Chemosh.  The  attack  was  wisely  arranged. 
It  was  determined  to  advance  against  Moab  from  the 
south,  through  the  territory  of  Edom,  by  a  rough  and 
mountainous  track,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  to  take  the 
nation  by  surprise.  The  combined  host  took  a  seven 
days'  circuit  round  the  south  of  the  Dead  Sea,  hoping 
to  find  an  abundant  supply  of  water  in  the  stream 
which  flows  through  the  Wady-el-Ahsa,  which  separates 
Edom  from  Moab.^  But  owing  to  recent  droughts  the 
Wady  was  waterless,  and  the  armies,  with  their  horses, 
suffered  all  the  agonies  of  thirst.     Jehoram  gave  way 

'  It  is  not  clear  whether  the  lambs  and  rams  were  sent  with  the 
fleeces.  The  A.V.  says  "lambs  and  rams  with  their  wool,"  in  accord- 
ance with  Josephus — /nvpiddas  eiKoai  Trpo^aTwv  ffvu  toTs  ttokois.  The  LXX. 
has  the  vague  iirl  wSkuv,  and  implies  that  this  was  a  special  fine  after 
a  defeat  in  the  revolt  (iv  ttj  inavaaTciffec)  :  but  comp.  Isa,  xvi.  i. 

-  2  Chron.  xx.  I-30. 

•'  Robinson  {Bibl.  Res.,  ii.  157)  identifies  it  with  the  brook  Zered. 
Deut.  ii.  13  ;  Num.  xxi.  12.  The  name  means  "valley  of  water-pits." 
W.  R.  Smith  quotes  Doughty,  Travels,  i.  26. 


32  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

to  despair,  bewailing  that  Jehovah  should  have  brought 
together  these  three  kings  to  deliver  them  a  helpless 
prey  into  the  hands  of  Moab.  But  the  pious  Jehoshaphat 
at  once  thinks  of  "  inquiring  of  the  Lord "  by  some 
true  prophet,  and  one  of  Jehoram's  courtiers  informs 
him  that  no  less  a  person  than  Elisha,  the  son  of 
Shaphat,  who  had  been  the  attendant  of  Elijah,  is 
with  the  host.^  We  are  surprised  to  find  that  his 
presence  in  the  camp  had  excited  so  little  attention 
as  to  be  unknown  to  the  king ;  -  but  Jehoshaphat,  on 
hearing  his  name,  instantly  acknowledged  his  prophetic 
inspiration.  So  urgent  was  the  need,  and  so  deep 
the  sense  of  Elisha's  greatness,  that  the  three  kings 
in  person  went  on  an  embassy  "  to  the  servant  of  him 
who  ran  before  the  chariot  of  Ahab."  Their  humble 
appeal  to  him  produced  so  little  elation  in  his  mind 
that,  addressing  Jehoram,  who  was  the  most  powerful, 
he  exclaimed,  with  rough  indignation  :  '*  What  have  I 
to  do  with  thee?  Get  thee  to  the  prophets  of  thy 
father," — nominal  prophets  of  Jehovah,  who  will  say 
to  thee  smooth  things  and  prophesy  deceits,  as  four 
hundred  of  them  did  to  Ahab — "  and  to  the  Baal- 
prophets    of  thy  mother."      Instead   of  resenting    this 

'  Comp.  I  Kings  xxii.  7.  The  phrase  "  who  poured  water  on  the 
hands  of  Elijah  "  is  a  touch  of  Oriental  custom  which  the  traveller  in 
remote  parts  of  Palestine  may  still  often  see.  Once,  when  driven  by 
a  storm  into  the  house  of  the  Sheykh  of  a  tribe  which  had  a  rather 
bad  reputation  for  brigandage,  I  was  most  hospitably  entertained  ;  and 
the  old  white-haired  Sheykh,  his  son,  and  ourselves  were  waited 
on  by  the  grandson,  a  magnificent  youth,  who  immediately  after  the 
meal  brought  out  an  old  richly  chased  ewer  and  basin,  and  poured 
water  over  our  hands,  soiled  by  eating  out  of  the  common  dish,  of 
course  without  spoons  or  forks. 

-  This  seems  to  have  struck  Josephus  {Antl.,  IX.  iii.  i),  who  saj-s 
that  "he  chanced  to  be  in  a  tent  {^rvxe  KareaKT^vuKihi)  outside  the 
host." 


iii.4-27.]  THE  INVASION   OF  MOAB 


scant  respect  Jehoram,  in  utmost  distress,  deprecated 
the  prophet's  anger,  and  appealed  to  his  pity  for  the 
peril  of  the  three  armies.  But  Elisha  is  not  mollified. 
He  tells  Jehoram  that  but  for  the  presence  of  Jehoshaphat 
he  would  not  so  much  as  look  at  him  :  so  completely 
was  the  destiny  of  the  people  mixed  up  with  the 
character  of  their  kings  !  Out  of  respect  for  Jehoshaphat 
Elisha  will  do  what  he  can.  But  all  his  soul  is  in  a 
tumult  of  emotion.  For  the  moment  he  can  do  nothing. 
He  needs  to  be  calmed  from  his  agitation  by  the  spell 
of  music,  and  bids  them  send  a  minstrel  to  him.  The 
harper  came,  and  as  Elisha  listened  his  soul  was  com- 
posed, and  "  the  hand  of  the  Lord  came  upon  him  "  to 
illuminate  and  inspire  his  thoughts.*  The  result  was 
that  he  bade  them  dig  trenches  in  the  dry  wady,  and 
promised  that,  though  they  should  see  neither  wind  nor 
rain,  the  valley  should  be  filled  with  water  to  quench 
the  thirst  of  the  fainting  armies,  their  horses  and  their 
cattle.  After  this  God  would  also  deliver  the  Moabites 
into  their  hand ;  and  they  were  bidden  to  smite  the 
cities,  fell  the  trees,  stop  the  wells,  and  mar  the  smiling 
pasture-lands,  which  constituted  the  wealth  of  Moab, 
with  stones.  That  the  hosts  of  Judah  and  Israel  and 
jealous  Edom  should  be  prone  to  afflict  this  awfully 
devastating  vengeance  on  a  power  by  which  they  had 
been  so  severely  defeated  on  past  occasions,  and  on 
which  they  had  so  many  wrongs  and  blood-feuds  to 
avenge,  was  natural ;  but  it  is  surprising  to  find  a 
prophet  of  the  Lord  giving  the  commission  to  ruin  the 
gifts  of  God  and  spoil  the  innocent  labours  of  man, 
and  thus  to  inflict  misery  on  generations  yet  unborn. 

'  Comp.  I  Sam,  x.  5  ;  i  Chron,  xxv.  i ;  Ezek.  i.  3,  xxxiii.  22. 
Menaggen  is  one  who  plays  on  a  stringed  instrument,  n'gindh.  The 
Pythagoreans  used  music  in  the  same  way  (Cic,  Tusc.  Disp.,  iv.  2). 

3 


34  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

The  behest  is  directh'  contrary  to  rules  of  international 
war  which  have  prevailed  even  between  non-Christian 
nations,  among  whom  the  stopping  or  poisoning  of 
wells  and  the  cutting  down  of  fruit  trees  has  been 
expressly  forbidden.  It  is  also  against  the  rules  of 
war  laid  down  in  Deuteronomy/  Such,  however,  was 
the  command  attributed  to  Elisha  ;  and,  as  we  shall  see, 
it  was  fulfilled,  and  seems  to  have  led  to  disastrous 
consequences. 

Cheered  by  the  promise  of  Divine  aid  which  the 
prophet  had  given  them,  the  host  retired  to  rest.  The 
next  morning  at  day-dawn,  when  the  minchah  of  fine 
flour,  oil,  and  frankincense  was  offered,^  water,  which, 
according  to  the  tradition  of  Josephus,  had  fallen  at 
three  days'  distance  on  the  hills  of  Edom,  came  flowing 
from  the  south  and  filled  the  wady  with  its  refreshing 
streams. 

The  incident  itself  is  highly  instructive.  It  throws 
light  both  upon  the  general  accuracy  of  the  ancient 
narrative,  and  on  the  fact  that  events  to  which  a  directly 
supernatural  colouring  is  given  are,  in  many  instances, 
not  so  much  supernatural  as  providential.  The  deliver- 
ance of  Israel  was  due,  not  to  a  portent  wrought  by 
Elisha,  but  to  the  pure  wisdom  which  he  derived  from 
the  inspiration  of  God.  When  the  counsels  of  princes 
were  of  none  effect,  and  for  lack  of  the  spirit  of  counsel 
the  people  were  perishing,  his  mind  alone,  illuminated 
by  a  wisdom  from  on  high,  saw  what  was  the  right  step 
to  take.  He  bade  the  soldiers  dig  trenches  in  the  dry 
torrent  bed, — which  was  the  very  step  most  likely  to 
ensure  their  deliverance  from  the  torment  of  thirst,  and 
which  would    be  done   under  similar  circumstances  to 


'  Deut.  XX.  19,  20. 

*  Lev.  ii.  I.     Comp.  I  Kings  xviii.  36. 


iii.  4-27.]  THE  INVASION  OF  MOAB 


this  day.  They  saw  neither  wind  nor  rain ;  but  there 
had  been  a  storm  among  the  farther  hills,  and  the 
swollen  watercourses  discharged  their  overflow  into 
the  trenches  of  the  wady  which  were  ready  prepared 
for  them,  and  offered  the  path  of  least  resistance. 

Moab,  meanwhile,  had  heard  of  the  advance  of  the 
three  kings  through  the  territories  of  Edom.  The 
whole  military  population  had  mustered  in  arms,  and 
stood  on  the  frontier,  on  the  other  side  of  the  dry 
wady,  to  oppose  the  invasion.  For  they  knew  this 
would  be  a  struggle  of  life  and  death,  and  that  if 
defeated  they  would  have  no  mercy  to  expect.  When 
the  sun  rose,  and  its  first  rays  burned  on  the  wady, 
which  had  been  dry  on  the  previous  evening,  the  water 
which,  unknown  to  the  Moabites,  had  filled  the  trenches 
in  the  night,  looked  red  as  blood.  Doubtless  it  may 
have  been  stained,  as  Ewald  says,  by  the  red  soil 
which  gave  its  name  to  the  red  land  of  the  "red  king, 
Edom  "  ;  but  as  it  gleamed  under  the  dawn  the  Moabites 
thought  that  those  seemingly  crimson  pools  had  been 
filled  with  the  blood  of  their  enemies,  who  had  fallen 
by  each  other's  sv/ords.  Their  own  recent  experience 
when  Jehoshaphat  met  them  in  the  Valley  of  Salt 
showed  them  how  easy  it  was  for  temporary  allies 
to  be  seized  by  panic,  and  to  fight  among  themselves.' 

The  army  of  their  invaders  was  composed  of  hetero- 
geneous and  mutually  conflicting  elements.  Between 
Israel  and  Judah  there  had  been  nearly  a  century 
of  war,^  and  only  a  brief  reunion  ;  and  Edom,  recently 
the  willing  and  natural  ally  of  Moab,  was  not  likely  to 
fight  very  zealously  for  Judah,  which  had  reduced  her 
to  vassalage.     So  the   Moabites   said   to  one  another, 

'  Tins  dreadful  result  crippled  the  revolt  of  Vindex  against  Nero. 
*  Jeroboam  I.,  B.C.  937  ;  Joram,  854. 


36  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


as  they  pointed  to  the  unexpected  apparition  of  those 
red  pools :  **  This  is  blood.  The  kings  are  surely 
destroyed,  and  they  have  smitten  each  man  his  fellow. 
Moab  to  the  spoil  !  "  They  rushed  down  tumultuously 
on  the  camp  of  Israel,  and  found  the  soldiers  of 
Jehoram  ready  to  receive  them.  Taken  by  surprise, 
for  they  had  expected  no  resistance,  they  were  hurled 
back  in  utter  confusion  and  with  immense  slaughter. 
The  three  kings  pushed  their  advantage  to  the  utmost. 
They  went  forward  into  the  land,  driving  and  smiting 
the  Moabites  before  them,  and  ruthlessly  carrying  out 
the  command  attributed  to  Elisha.  They  beat  down 
the  cities — most  of  which  in  a  land  of  flocks  and  herds 
were  little  more  than  pastoral  villages ;  they  rendered 
the  green  fields  useless  with  stones ;  they  filled  up  all 
the  wells  with  earth  ;  they  felled  every  fruit-bearing 
tree  of  any  value.  At  last  only  one  stronghold,  Kir- 
haraseth,  the  chief  fenced  town  of  Moab,  held  out 
against  them.^  Even  this  fortress  was  sore  bested. 
The  slinger.s,  for  which  Israel,  and  specially  the  tribe 
of  Benjamin,  was  so  famous,  advanced  to  drive  its 
defenders  from  the  battlements.  King  Mesha  fought 
with  undaunted  heroism.  He  decided  to  take  the 
seven  hundred  warriors  who  were  left  to  him,  and 
cut  his  way  through  the  besieging  host  to  the  king 
of  Edom.  He  thought  that  even  now  he  might  per- 
suade the  Edomites  to  abandon  this  new  and  unnatural 
alliance,    and    turn    the    battle    against    their   common 

'  Isa.  XV.  I,  Kir  of  Moab;  Jer.  xlviii.  31,  Kir-heres.  It  is  built  on 
a  steep  calcareous  rock,  surrounded  by  a  deep,  narrow  glen,  which 
thence  descends  westward  to  the  Dead  Sea,  under  the  name  of  the 
Wady  Kerak.  We  know  that  the  armies  of  Nineveh  habitually 
practised  these  brutal  modes  of  devastation  in  the  districts  which 
they  conquered.    See  La3'ard,  passim  ;  Rawlinson,  Aiideiil  Moiioirliies, 


iii.4-27.]  THE  INVASION  OF  MOAB  37 

enemies.  But  the  numbers  against  him  were  too 
strong,  and  he  found  the  plan  irnpossible.  Then  he 
formed  a  dreadful  resolution,  dictated  to  him  by  the 
extremity  of  his  despair.  His  inscription  at  Karcha 
shows  that  he  was  a  profound  and  even  fanatical 
believer  in  Chemosh,  his  god.  Chemosh  could  still 
deliver  him.  If  Chemosh  was,  as  Mesha  says  in  his 
inscription,  "  angry  with  his  land  " — if,  even  for  a  time, 
he  allowed  his  faithful  people  and  his  devoted  king  to 
be  afflicted — it  could  not  be  for  any  lack  of  power  on 
his  part,  but  only  because  they  had  in  some  way 
offended  him,  so  that  he  was  wroth,  or  because  he  had 
gone  on  a  journey,  or  was  asleep,  or  deaf.^  How  could 
he  be  appeased  ?  Only  by  the  offering  of  the  most 
precious  of  all  the  king's  possessions  ;  only  by  the 
self-devotion  of  the  crown-prince,  on  whom  were 
centred  all  the  nation's  hopes.  Mesha  would  force 
Chemosh  to  help  him  for  very  shame.  He  would 
offer  to  Chemosh  a  human  sacrifice,  the  sacrifice  of 
his  eldest  son  that  should  have  reigned  in  his  stead. 
Doubtless  the  young  prince  gave  himself  up  as  a  willing 
offering,  for  that  was  essential  to  the  holocaust  being 
valid  and  acceptable.'^ 

So  upon  the  wall  of  Kir-haraseth,  in  the  sight  of  all 
the  Moabites,  and  of  the  three  invading  armies,  the 
brave  and  desperate  hero  of  a  hundred  fights,  who 
had  inflicted  so  many  reverses  upon  these  enemies,  and 
received  so  many  at  their  hands,  but  who,  having 
liberated  his  country,  now  saw  all  the  efforts  of  his  life 
ruined  at  one  blow — took  his  eldest  son,  kindled  the 

'  I  Kings  xviii.  27.  Comp.  Psalm  xxxv.  23,  xliv.  23,  Ixxxiii. 
I,  etc. 

-'  Comp.  Micah  vi.  7.  This  is  an  entirel3'^  different  incident  from 
that  alluded  to  in  Amos  ii.  I. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


sacrificial  fire,  and  then  and  there  solemnly  offered  that 
horrible  burnt-offering/ 

And  it  proved  effectual,  though  far  otherwise  than 
Mesha  had  expected.  He  was  delivered ;  and,  doubt- 
less, if  ever  he  reared,  at  Kirharaseth  or  elsewhere, 
another  memorial  stone,  he  would  have  attributed  his 
deliverance  to  his  national  god.  But  here,  in  the  annals 
of  Elisha,  the  result  is  hurried  over,  and  a  veil  is,  so 
to  speak,  dropped  upon  the  dreadful  scene  with  the  one 
ambiguous  expression,  "  And  there  was  great  wrath 
against  Israel  :  and  they  departed  from  him,  and 
returned  to  their  own  land." 

The  phrase  awakens  but  does  not  satisfy  our  curiosit3^ 
We  are  not  certain  of  the  translation,  or  of  the  mean- 
ing. It  may  be,  as  in  the  margin  of  the  Revised  Version, 
"  there  came  great  wrath  upon  Israel."  ■  But  wrath 
from  whom  ?  and  on  what  account  ?  The  word 
**  wrath  "  all  but  invariably  denotes  divine  wrath ;  but 
we  cannot  imagine  (as  some  critics  do)  that  any  Israelite 
of  the  schools  of  the  prophets  would  sanction  the 
notion  that  the  chosen  people  were  allowed  to  suffer 
from  the  kindled  wrath  of  Chemosh.  Can  we  then 
suppose  that  the  desperate  act  of  King  Mesha  was  a 
proof  that  Israel,  who  was  no  doubt  the  most  interested 
and  the  most  remorseless  of  the  invaders,  had  pressed 
the  Moabites  too  hard,  and  carried  his  vengeance  much 
too  far?  That  is  by  no  means  impossible.  The 
prophet   Amos    denounces  upon    Moab   in   after  years 


'  Eusebius  (Prap.  Evaiig.,  iv.  i6)  quotes  from  Philo's  PhcEnician 
history  a  reference  to  human  sacrifices  {rots  rifiupois  dal/jiocnv}  at 
moments  of  desperation. 

''  The  rendering  is  doubtful.  LXX.,  Kai  iy^vero  /xeTd/jieXos  ijAya%  iirl 
'IcrpaTjX;  Vulg.,  indignatio  in  Israel;  Luther,  Da  ward  Israel  sehr 
"sortiig. 


iii.4-27.]  THE  INVASION  OF  MOAB  39 

the  doom  that  fire  should  devour  the  palaces  of  Kirioth, 
and  that  Moab  should  perish  with  shoutings,  and  all 
his  royal  line  be  cut  off,  for  the  far  less  offence  of  having 
burned  into  lime  the  bones  of  the  king  of  Edom.^  The 
command  of  Elisha  did  not  exempt  the  Israelites  from 
their  share  of  moral  respensibility.  Jehu  was  com- 
missioned to  be  an  executioner  of  vengeance  upon  the 
house  of  Ahab.  Yet  Jehu  is  expressly  condemned  by 
the  prophet  Hosea  for  the  tiger-like  ferocity  and 
horrible  thoroughness  with  which  he  had  carried  out 
his  destined  work.^  Only  one  other  explanation  is 
possible.  If  "  wrath  "  here  has  the  unusual  sense  of 
human  indignation,  the  clause  can  only  imply  that  the 
armies  of  Judah  and  Edom  were  roused  to  anger  by 
the  unpitying  spirit  which  Israel  had  displa3'ed.  The 
horrible  tragedy  enacted  upon  the  wall  of  Kirharaseth 
awoke  their  consciences  to  the  sense  of  human  com- 
passion. These,  after  all,  were  fellow-men — fellow-men 
of  kindred  blood  to  their  own — whom  they  had  driven 
to  straits  so  frightful  as  to  cause  a  king  to  burn  his 
own  heir  alive  as  a  mute  appeal  to  his  god  in  the  hour 
of  overwhelming  ruin.     They  had  done  enough  : 

"  Sunt  lacrimae  rerum  et  mentem  mortalia  tangunt." 

They  hastily  broke  up  the  league,  dissolved  the  alliance, 
returned  horror-stricken  to  their  own  land.  They  left 
Moab  indeed  in  possession  of  his  last  fortress,  but  they 
had  reduced  his  temtory  to  a  wilderness  before  they 
retired  and  called  it  peace. 

'  Amos  ii.  1-3. 

*  Hos.  i.  4 :  "I  will  avenge  the  blood  of  Jezrecl  upon  the  house 
of  Jehu." 


CHAPTER   V 

ELISHA'S  MIRACLES 
2  Kings  iv.    i — 44 

WE  are  now  in  the  full  tide  of  Elisha's  miracles, 
and  as  regards  many  of  them  we  can  do  little 
more  than  illustrate  the  text  as  it  stands.  The  record 
of  them  clearly  comes  from  some  account  prevalent  in 
the  schools  of  the  prophets,  which  is  however  only 
fragmentary,  and  has  been  unchronologically  pieced 
into  the  annals  of  the  kings  of  Israel. 

The  story  of  Elisha  abounds  far  more  in  the  super- 
natural than  that  of  Elijah,  and  is  believed  by  most 
critics  to  be  of  earlier  date.  Yet  the  scenes  and  portents 
of  his  life  are  almost  wholly  lacking  in  the  element  of 
grandeur  which  belong  to  those  of  the  elder  seer.  His 
personality,  if  on  the  whole  softer  and  more  beneficent, 
inspires  less  of  awe,  and  the  whole  tone  of  the 
biography  which  recorded  these  isolated  incidents  is 
lacking  in  the  poetic  and  impassioned  elevation  which 
marks  the  episodes  of  Elijah's  history.  We  see  in  the 
records  of  Elisha,  as  in  the  biographies — so  rich  in 
prodigies — of  fourth-century  hermits  and  mediaeval 
saints,  how  little  impressive  in  itself  is  the  exercise  of 
abnormal  powers ;  how  it  derives  its  sole  grandeur  from 
the  accompaniment  of  great  moral  lessons  and  spiritual 
revelations.     John   the   Baptist   "did   no   miracle,"  yet 

40 


iv.  1-44.]  ELISHA'S  MIRACLES  4 1 

our  Lord  placed  him  not  only  far  above  Elisha,  but 
even  above  Moses  and  Samuel  and  Elijah,  when  He 
said  of  him,  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  of  them  that 
have  been  bom  of  women  there  hath  not  risen  a  greater 
than  John  the  Baptist." 

It  is  impossible  not  to  Tdc  struck  with  the  singular 
parallelism    between    the    powers    exercised   by  Elisha 
and    those    which    are    attributed    to    his    predecessor. 
"How  true   an   heir   is   Elisha    of  his    master,"    says 
Bishop    Hall,    "  not    in    his    graces    only,    but    in    his 
actions  !     Both  of  them  divided  the  waters  of  Jordan, 
the  one  as  his  last  act,  the  other  as  his  first.     Elijah's 
curse  was  the  death  of  the  captains  and  their  troops  ; 
Elisha's  curse  was  the   death  of  the  children.     Elijah 
rebuked  Ahab    to    his  face ;  Elisha,    Jehoram.      Elijah 
supplied  the  drought  of  Israel    by  rain  from  heaven  ; 
Elisha    supplied    the    drought  of  the    three    kings    by 
waters  gushing  out  of  the  earth ;  Elijah  increased  the 
oil  of  the   Sareptan,  Elisha   increased    the    oil    of  the 
prophet's  widow ;  Elijah  raised  from  death  the  Sarep- 
tan's  .son,  Elisha  the  Shunammite's ;  both  of  them  had 
one  mantle,  one  spirit ;  both  of  them  climbed  up  one 
Carmel,  one   heaven."     The    resemblance,  however,  is 
not  at  all  in  character,  but  only  in  external  and  mira- 
culous circumstances.       In    all   other   respects    Elisha 
furnishes  a  contrast  to  Elijah  which  startles  us  quite 
as  much  as  any  superficial  resemblances.     Elijah  was 
a  free,  wild  Bedawy  prophet,  hating  and  shunning  as 
his  ordinary  residence  the  abodes  of  men,  making  his 
home  in  the  rocky  wady  or   in  the    mountain  glades, 
appearing  and  disappearing  suddenly  as  the  wind.     He 
asserted  his  power  most  often  in  ministries  of  retribu- 
tion.    Clad  in  the  sheepskin  of  a  Gadite  shepherd  or 
mountaineer,  he  was  not  one  of  those  who  wear  soft 


42         THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


clothing  or  are  found  in  kings'  houses.  He  usually  met 
monarchs  as  their  enemy  and  their  reprover,  but  for 
the  most  part  avoided  them.  He  never  intervened  for 
years  together  even  in  national  events  of  the  utmost 
importance,  whether  military  or  religious,  unless  he 
received  the  direct  call  of  God,  or  there  appeared  to 
him  to  be  a  **  dignns  Vindice  nodusP  Elisha,  on  the 
other  hand,  makes  his  home  in  cities,  and  chiefly  in 
Samaria.  He  is  familiar  with  kings  and  moves  about 
with  armies,  and  has  no  long  retirements  into  unknown 
solitudes ;  and  though  he  could  speak  roughly  to 
Jehoram,  he  is  often  on  the  friendliest  terms  with  him 
and  with  other  sovereigns. 

The  stories  of  Elisha  give  us  many  interesting 
glimpses  into  the  social  life  of  Israel  in  his  day.  As 
to  their  literal  historic  accuracy,  those  must  make 
positive  affirmation  who  feel  that  they  can  do  so  in 
accordance  alike  with  adequate  authority  and  with  the 
sacredness  of  truth.  Many  will  be  unable  to  escape 
the  opinion  that  they  bear  some  resemblance  to  other 
Jewish  haggadoth,  written  for  edification,  with  every 
innocent  intention,  in  the  schools  of  the  Prophets,  but 
no  more  intended  for  perfectly  literal  acceptance  in  all 
their  details  than  the  Life  of  St.  Paul  the  Hermit,  by 
St.  Jerome ;  or  that  of  St.  Antony,  attributed  erro- 
neously to  St.  Athanasius ;  or  that  of  St.  Francis  in  the 
Fioretti ;  or  the  lives  of  humble  saints  of  the  people 
called  Kisar-el-anbiah,  which  are  so  popular  among  poor 
Mohammedans.  Into  that  question  there  is  no  need  to 
enter  further.     Abundet  qiiisque  in  sensu  suo. 

I.  On  one  occasion  a  widow  of  one  of  the  Sons  of 
the  Prophets — for  these  communities,  though  coenobitic, 
were  not  celibate — came  to  him  in  deep  distress.  Her 
husband — the  Jews,  with  their  usual  guesswork,  most 


iv.  1-44.]  ELISHA'S  MIRACLES  43 


improbably  identify  him  with  Obadiah,  the  chamberlain 
of  Ahab^ — had  died  insolvent.  As  she  had  nothing  to 
pay,  her  creditor  under  the  grim  provision  of  the  law 
was  about  to  exercise  his  right  of  selling  her  two  sons 
into  slavery  to  recoup  himself  for  the  debt.^  Would 
Elisha  help  her  ? 

Prophets  were  never  men  of  wealth,  so  that  he  could 
not  pay  her  debt.  He  asked  her  what  she  possessed 
to  satisfy  the  demand.  **  Nothing,"  she  said,  "  but  a 
pot  of  the  common  oil,  used  for  anointing  the  body 
after  a  bath." 

Elisha  bade  her  go  and  borrow  from  her  neighbours 
all  the  empty  vessels  she  could,  then  to  return  home, 
shut  the  door,  and  pour  the  oil  into  the  vessels. 

She  did  so.  They  were  all  filled,  and  she  asked  her 
son  to  bring  yet  another.  But  there  was  not  another 
to  be  had,  so  she  went  out  and  told  the  Man  of  God- 
He  bade  her  sell  the  miraculously  multiplied  oil  to  pay 
the  debt,  and  live  with  her  sons  on  the  proceeds  of 
what  was  over. 

II.  We  next  find  Elisha  at  Shunem,  famous  as  the 
abode  of  the  fair  maiden — probably  Abishag,  the  nurse 
of  David's  decrepitude — who  is  the  heroine  of  the  Song 
of  Songs.  It  is  a  village,  now  called  Solam,  on  the 
slopes  of  Little  Hermon  (Jebel-el-Duhy),  three  miles 
north  of  Jezreel.  At  this  place  there  lived  a  lady  of 
wealth  and  influence,  whose  husband  owned  the  sur- 
rounding land.  There  were  but  few  khans  in  Palestine, 
and  even  where  they  now  exist  the  traveller  has  in 
most  cases  to  supply  his  own  food.  Elisha,  in  his 
journeys  to  and  fro  among  the  schools  of  the  Prophets, 


'  Jos.,  Antt.,  IX.   iv.   2,     Thip  perhaps  is  only  suggested  by  the 
reminiscences  of  i  Kings  xviii.  2,  3,  12. 
-  Lev.  XXV.  39-41  ;  Matt,  xviii.  25. 


44  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

had  often  enjoyed  the  welcome  hospitaHty  eagerly 
pressed  upon  him  by  the  lady  of  Shunem.  Struck 
with  his  sacred  character,  she  persuaded  her  husband 
to  take  a  step  unusual  even  to  the  boundless  hospitality 
of  the  East.  She  begged  him  to  do  honour  to  this 
holy  Man  of  God  by  building  for  him  a  little  chamber 
(ciliyah)  on  the  flat  roof  of  the  house,  to  which  he  might 
have  easy  and  private  access  by  the  outside  staircase.^ 
The  chamber  was  built,  and  furnished,  like  any  other 
simple  Eastern  room,  with  a  bed,  a  divan  to  sit  on,  a 
table,  and  a  lamp  ;  and  there  the  weary  prophet  on  his 
journeys  often  found  a  peaceful,  simple,  and  delightful 
resting-place. 

Grateful  for  the  reverence  with  which,  she  treated 
him,  and  the  kind  care  with  which  she  had  supplied 
his  needs,  Elisha  was  anxious  to  recompense  her  in 
whatever  way  might  be  possible.  The  thought  of 
money  payment  was  of  course  out  of  the  question  : 
merely  to  hint  at  it  would  have  been  a  breach  of 
manners.  But  perhaps  he  might  be  of  use  to  her  in 
some  other  way.  At  this  time,  and  for  years  afterwards 
during  his  long  ministry  of  perhaps  fifty-six  years,  he 
was  attended  by  a  servant  named  Gehazi,  who  stood 
to  him  in  the  same  sort  of  relation  which  he  had  held 
to  Elijah.  He  told  Gehazi  to  summon  the  Shunammite 
lady.  In  the  deep  humility  of  Eastern  womanhood  she 
came  and  stood  in  his  presence.  Even  then  he  did 
not  address  her.  So  downtrodden  was  the  position 
of  women  in  the  East  that  any  dignified  person,  much 
more  a  great  prophet,  could  not  converse  with  a 
woman  without  compromising  his  dignity.     The  more 


'   2  Kings  iv.  lo.     Not  "a  little  chamber  on  the  wall  "  (A.V.),  but 
an  allyah  with  walls  "  (margin,  R.V.). 


iv.  1-44.]  ELISHA'S  MIRACLES  45 


scrupulous  Pharisees  in  the  days  of  Christ  always 
carefully  gathered  up  their  garments  in  the  streets,  lest 
they  should  so  much  as  touch  a  woman  with  their 
skirts  in  passing  by,  as  the  modern  Chakams  in 
Jerusalem  do  to  this  day.^  The  disciples  themselves, 
sophisticated  by  familiarity  with  such  teachers,  were 
astonished  that  Jesus  at  the  well  of  Shechem  should 
talk  with  a  woman."  So,  though  the  lady  stood  there, 
Elisha,  instead  of  speaking  to  her  directly,  told  Gehazi 
to  thank  her  for  all  the  devout  respect  and  care,  all 
*  the  modesty  of  fearful  duty,'  ^  which  she  had  displayed 
towards  them,  and  to  ask  her  if  he  should  say  a  good 
word  for  her  to  the  King  or  the  Captain  of  the  Host. 
This  is  just  the  sort  of  favour  which  an  Eastern  would 
be  likely  to  value  most.*  The  Shunammite,  however, 
was  well  provided  for  ;  she  had  nothing  to  complain 
of,  and  nothing  to  request.  She  thanked  Elisha  for 
his  kindly  proposal,  but  declined  it,  and  went  away. 

"  Is  there,  then,  nothing  which  we  can  do  for  her  ?  " 
asked  Elisha  of  Gehazi.^ 

There  was.  Gehazi  had  learnt  that  the  sorrow  of 
her  life — a  sorrow  and  a  source  of  reproach  to  any 
Eastern  household,  but  most  of  all  to  that  of  a  wealthy 
householder — was  her  childlessness. 

"  Call  her,"  he  said. 


'  Frankl.,  Jews  in  the  East. 

"^  John  iv.  27  :  "  Then  came  His  disciples,  and  marvelled  that  He 
was  talking  (/xera  yvvaiKbs)  with  a  woman." 

'■'  2  Kings  iv.  13  :  "Behold,  thou  hast  been  careful  for  us  with  all 
this  care"  (LXX.,  iraaav  rr)v  ^Koraffiv  TarjTyjv). 

*  The  Sheykh  with  whom  I  stayed  at  Bint  es  Jebeil  could  think  of 
no  return  which  I  could  offer  for  his  hospitality  so  acceptable  as  if 
I  would  say  a  good  word  for  him  to  the  authorities  at  Beyrout. 

■*  Gehazi  is  usually  called  the  na'ar  or  "  lad  "  of  Elisha — a  term 
implying  lower  service  than  F.lisha's  "  ministry  "  to  Elijah. 


46  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

She  came  back,  and  stood  reverently  in  the  doorway. 

"  When  the  time  comes  round,"  he  said  to  her,  "  you 
shall  embrace  a  son." 

The  promise  raised  in  her  heart  a  thrill  of  joy.  It 
was  too  precious  to  be  believed.  "  Nay,"  she  said, 
"  my  lord,  thou  Man  of  God,  do  not  lie  unto  thine 
handmaid." 

But  the  promise  was  fulfilled,  and  the  lady  of  Shunem 
became  the  happy  mother  of  a  son. 

III.  The  charming  episode  then  passes  over  some 
years.  The  child  had  grown  into  a  little  boy,  old 
enough  now  to  go  out  alone  to  see  his  father  in  the 
harvest  fields  and  to  run  about  among  the  reapers. 
But  as  he  played  about  in  the  heat  he  had  a  sunstroke, 
and  cried  to  his  father,  "  O  my  head,  my  head  !  "  Not 
knowing  how  serious  the  matter  was,  his  father  simply 
ordered  one  of  his  lads  to  carry  the  child  home  to  his 
mother.  The  fond  mother  nursed  him  tenderly  upon 
her  knees,  but  at  noon  he  died. 

Then  the  lady  of  Shunem  showed  all  the  faith  and 
strength  and  wisdom  of  her  character.  "  The  good 
Shunammite,"  says  Bishop  Hall,  "  had  lost  her  son  ;  her 
faith  she  lost  not."  Overwhelming  as  was  this  calamity 
— the  loss  of  an  only  child — she  suppressed  all  her 
emotions,  and,  instead  of  bursting  into  the  wild  helpless 
wail  of  Eastern  mourners,  or  rushing  to  her  husband 
with  the  agonising  news,  she  took  the  little  boy's  body 
in  her  arms,  carried  it  up  to  the  chamber  which  had 
been  built  for  Elisha,  and  laid  it  upon  his  bed.  Then, 
shutting  the  door,  she  called  to  her  husband  to  send  to 
her  one  of  his  reapers  and  one  of  the  asses,  for  she 
was  going  quickly  to  the  Man  of  God  and  would  return 
in  the  cool  of  the  evening.  "  Why  should  you  go 
to-day   particularly  ?  "  he  asked.      "It  is  neither  new 


iv.  1-44.]  ELISHA'S  MIRACLES  47 


moon,  nor  sabbath."  "  It  is  all  right,"  she  said;^  and 
with  perfect  confidence  in  the  rectitude  of  all  her 
purposes,  he  sent  her  the  she-ass,  and  a  servant  to 
drive  it  and  to  run  beside  it  for  her  protection  on  the 
journey  of  sixteen  miles. 

**  Drive  on  the  ass,"  she  said.  "  Slacken  me  not  the 
riding  unless  I  tell  you."  So  with  all  possible  speed 
she  made  her  way — a  journey  of  several  hours — from 
Shunem  to  Mount  Carmel. 

Elisha,  from  his  retreat  on  the  hill,  marked  her 
coming  from  a  distance,  and  it  rendered  him  anxious. 
"  Here  comes  the  Shunammite,"  he  said  to  Gehazi. 
"  Run  to  meet  her,  and  ask  Is  it  well  with  thee  ?  is  it 
well  with  thy  husband  ?  is  it  well  with  the  child  ?  " 

"All  well,"  she  answered,  for  her  message  was  not 
to  Gehazi,  and  she  could  not  trust  her  voice  to  speak  ; 
but  pressing  on  up-hillwards,  she  flung  herself  before 
Elisha  and  grasped  his  feet.  Displeased  at  the 
familiarity  which  dared  thus  to  clasp  the  feet  of  his 
master,  Gehazi  ran  up  to  thrust  her  away  by  force, 
but  Elisha  interfered.  "  Let  her  alone,"  he  cried  ;  "  she 
is  in  deep  afQiction,  and  Jehovah  has  not  revealed  to 
me  the  cause."  Then  her  long  pent-up  emotion  burst 
forth.  "  Did  I  desire  a  son  of  my  lord  ?  "  she  cried. 
"  Did  I  not  say  do  not  deceive  me  ?  " 

It  was  enough — though  she  seemed  unable  to  bring 
out  the  dreadful  words  that  her  boy  was  dead.  Catch- 
ing her  meaning,  Elisha  said  to  Gehazi,  "  Gird  up  thy 
loins,  take  my  staff,  and  without  so  much  as  stopping 
to  salute  any  one,  or  to  return  a  salutation,^  lay  my 
staff  on  the  dead  child's  face."     But  the  broken-hearted 

'  2  Kings  iv.  23.    Hebrew  "  Peace  ";  A.V.,  "  It  shall  be  well." 
*  Salutations   occupy  some  time   in  the  formally  courteous  East. 
Comp.  Luke  x.  4. 


4«  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

mother  refused  to  leave  Elisha.  She  imagined  that  the 
servant,  the  staff,  might  be  severed  from  EHsha  ;  but 
she  knew  that  wherever  the  prophet  was,  there  was 
power.  So  Elisha  arose  and  followed  her,  and  on  the 
way  Gehazi  met  them  with  the  news  that  the  child 
lay  still  and  dead,  with  the  fruitless  staff  upon  his  face. 

Then  Elisha  in  deep  anguish  went  up  to  the  chamber 
and  shut  the  door,  and  saw  the  boy's  body  l3dng  pale 
upon  his  bed.  After  earnest  prayer  he  outstretched 
himself  over  the  little  corpse,  as  Elijah  had  done  at 
Zarephath.  Soon  it  began  to  grow  warm  with  return- 
ing Hfe,  and  Elisha,  after  pacing  up  and  down  the  room, 
once  more  stretched  himself  over  him.  Then  the  child 
opened  his  eyes  and  sneezed  seven  times,  and  Elisha 
called  to  Gehazi  to  summon  the  mother. 

"  Take  up  thy  son,"  he  said.  She  prostrated  herself 
at  his  feet  in  speechless  gratitude,  and  took  up  her 
recovered  child,  and  went. 

IV.  We  next  find  Elisha  at  Gilgal,  in  the  time  of  the 
famine  of  which  we  read  his  prediction  in  a  later 
chapter.^  The  sons  of  the  prophets  were  seated  round 
him,  listening  to  his  instructions  ;  the  hour  came  for 
their  simple  meal,  and  he  ordered  the  great  pot  to  be 
put  on  the  fire  for  the  vegetable  soup,  on  which,  with 
bread,  they  chiefly  lived..  One  of  them  went  out  for 
herbs,  and  carelessly  brought  his  outer  garment  (the 
abeyali)  '^  full  of  wild  ^poisonous  coloquinths,^  which,  by 
ignorance  or  inadvertence,  were  shred  into  the  pottage. 
But  when  it  was  cooked  and  poured  out  they  perceived 

'  2  Kings  viii.  i. 

^  Not  "  lap,"  as  in  A.V.  (Hcb.,  beged)  ;  LXX.  avvi\iie  TrXrjpei  rb 
t/xdriov  auToO  ;  Vulg.,  iniplevil  vestem  snain  (both  correctly). 

■'  Heb.,  paqitolh  ;  LXX.,  ro\inrr)v  dyplav  ;  Vulg.,  colocyntliidas  ngyi. 
Hence  the  name  cuaimis proplietnrHm. 


iv.  1-44.]  ELISHA'S  MIRACLES  49 

the  poisonous  taste,  and  cried  out,  "  O  Man  of  God, 
death  in  the  pot  I  " 

"  Bring  meal,"  he  said,  for  he  seems  always  to  have 
been  a  man  of  the  fewest  words. 

They  cast  in  some  meal,  and  were  all  able  to  eat  of 
the  now  harmless  pottage.  It  has  been  noticed  that  in 
this,  as  in  other  incidents  of  the  story,  there  is  no 
invocation  of  the  name  of  Jehovah. 

V.  Not  far  from  Gilgal  was  the  little  village  of 
•Baalshalisha,  ^  at  which  lived  a  farmer  who  wished  to 
bring  an  offering  of  firstfruits  and  karmel  (bruised 
grain)  in  his  wallet  to  Elisha  as  a  Man  of  God.^  It 
was  a  poor  gift  enough — only  twenty  of  the  coarse 
barley  loaves  which  were  eaten  by  the  common  people, 
and  a  sack  ^  full  of  fresh  ears  of  corn.*  Elisha  told  his 
servitor^ — perhaps  Gehazi — to  set  them  before  the  people 
present.  "  What  ?  "  he  asked,  "  this  trifle  of  food 
before  a  hundred  men  1  "  But  Elisha  told  him  in  the 
Lord's  name  that  it  should  more  than  suffice  ;  and  so 
it  did. 


'  Lord  of  the  Chain  and  "  Three  lands."  Three  wadies  meet  a 
this  spot,  a  little  west  of  Bethel. 

^  2  Kings  iv.  42,     Karmel,  Lev.  ii.  14.     Perhaps  a  sort  of  frumenty. 

^  The  word  for  "  wallet "  {tsiqlon ;  Vulg.,  pera)  occurs  here  only. 
Peshito,  "garment."  The  Vatican  LXX.  omits  it.  The  Greek  version 
has  ev  KUpOKi^)  avrov. 

*  See  Lev.  ii.  14,  xxiii.  14. 

*  2  Kings  iv.  43.  The  word  for  "  his  servitor  "  (m'chartho)  is  used 
also  of  Joshua.  It  does  not  mean  a  mere  ordinary  attendant.  LXX., 
\eiT0vpy6s;  Vnlg.,  miriisier. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE  STORY  OF  NAAMAN 

2  Kings  v.  i — 27 
Matt.  viii.  3  :    Qi\u},  Kadaplcrd-qTi. 

AFTER  these  shorter  anecdotes  we  have  the  longer 
episode  of  Naaman.^ 

A  part  of  the  misery  inflicted  by  the  Syrians  on 
Israel  was  caused  by  the  forays  in  which  their  light- 
armed  bands,  very  much  like  the  borderers  on  the 
marches  of  Wales  or  Scotland,  descended  upon  the 
country  and  carried  off  plunder  and  captives  before 
they  could  be  pursued. 

In  one  of  these  raids  they  had  seized  a  little 
Israelitish  girl  and  sold  her  to  be  a  slave.  She  had 
been  purchased  for  the  household  of  Naaman,  the 
captain  of  the  Syrian  host,  who  had  helped  his  king  and 
nation  to  win  important  victories  either  against  Israel  or 
against  Assyria.  Ancient  Jewish  tradition  identified  him 
with  the  man  who  had  "  drawn  his  bow  at  a  venture  " 
and  slain  King  Ahab.  But  all  Naaman's  valour  and 
rank  and  fame,  and  the  honour  felt  for  him  by  his  king, 
were  valueless  to  him,  for  he  was  suffering  from  the 
horrible  affliction  of  leprosy.     Lepers  do  not  seem  to 

'  It  is  curiously  omitted  by  Josephus,  though  he  mentions  him 
{"Ajxavos:)  as  the  slayer  of  Ahab  (Ant/.,  Vlll.  xv.  5).  The  name  is  an 
old  Hebrew  name  (Num.  xxvi.  40). 

50 


v.i-27.]  THE  STORY  OF  NAAMAN  51 


have  been  segregated  in  other  countries  so  strictly  as 
they  were  in  Israel,  or  at  any  rate  Naaman's  leprosy 
was  not  of  so  severe  a  form  as  to  incapacitate  him  from 
his  public  functions. 

But  it  was  evident  that  he  was  a  man  who  had  won 
the  affection  of  all  who  knew  him  ;  and  the  little  slave 
girl  who  waited  on  his  wife  breathed  to  her  a  passionate 
wish  that  Naaman  could  visit  the  Man  of  God  in 
Samaria,  for  he  would  recover  him  from  his  leprosy. 
The  saying  was  repeated,  and  one  of  Naaman's  friends 
mentioned  it  to  the  king  of  Syria.  Benhadad  was 
so  much  struck  by  it  that  he  instantly  determined  to 
send  a  letter,  with  a  truly  royal  gift  to  the  king  of 
Israel,  who  could,  he  supposed,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
command  the  services  of  the  prophet.  The  letter  came 
to  Jehoram  with  a  stupendous  present  of  ingots  of 
silver  to  the  value  of  ten  talents,  and  six  thousand 
pieces  of  gold,  and  ten  changes  of  raiment.^  After  the 
ordinary  salutations,  and  a  mention  of  the  gifts,  the 
letter  continued  "  And  now,  when  this  letter  is  come 
to  thee,  behold  I  have  sent  Naaman  my  servant,  that 
thou  mayest  recover  him  of  his  leprosy." 

Jehoram  lived  in  perpetual  terror  of  his  powerful 
and  encroaching  neighbour.  Nothing  was  said  in  the 
letter  about  the  Man  of  God ;  and  the  king  rent  his 
clothes,  exclaiming  that  he  was  not  God  to  kill  and  to 
make  alive,  and  that  this  must  be  a  base  pretext  for 
a  quarrel.  It  never  so  much  as  occurred  to  him,  as 
it  certainly  would  have  done  to  Jehoshaphat,  that  the 
prophet,  who  was  so  widely  known  and  honoured, 
and  whose  mission  had  been  so  clearly  attested  in  the 
invasion  of  Moab,  might  at  least  help  him  to  face  this 

'  The  word  Vboosh  means  a  gala  dress.      Comp.  v.  5;  Gen.  xlv.  22. 
XiTwi-es  iTrrmoi^oi  (Horn.,  Oc/,,  xiv.  514).     Comp.  viii.  249. 


52  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


problem.  Otherwise  the  difficulty  might  indeed  seem 
insuperable,  for  leprosy  was  universally  regarded  as  an 
incurable  disease. 

But  Elisha  was  not  afraid  :  he  boldly  told  Jehoram 
to  send  the  Syrian  captain  to  him.  Naaman,  with  his 
horses  and  his  chariots,  in  all  the  splendour  of  a  royal 
ambassador,  drove  up  to  the  humble  house  of  the 
prophet.  Being  so  great  a  man,  he  expected  a  de- 
ferential reception,  and  looked  for  the  performance  of 
his  cure  in  some  striking  and  dramatic  manner.  **  The 
prophet,"  so  he  said  to  himself,  "  will  come  out,  and 
solemly  invoke  the  name  of  his  God  Jehovah,  and 
wave  his  hand  over  the  leprous  limbs,  and  so  work 
the  miracle."^ 

But  the  servant  of  the  King  of  kings  was  not  exult- 
antly impressed,  as  false  prophets  so  often  are,  by 
earthly  greatness.  Elisha  did  not  even  pay  him  the 
compliment  of  coming  out  of  the  house  to  meet  him. 
He  wished  to  efface  himself  completely,  and  to  fix  the 
leper's  thoughts  on  the  one  truth  that  if  heahng  was 
granted  to  him,  it  was  due  to  the  gift  of  God,  not  to 
the  thaumaturgy  or  arts  of  man.  He  simply  sent  out 
his  servant  to  the  Syrian  commander-in-chief  with  the 
brief  message,  "  Go  and  wash  in  Jordan  seven  times, 
and  be  thou  clean." 

Naaman,  accustomed  to  the  extreme  deference  of 
many  dependants,  was  not  only  ojffended,  but  enraged, 
by  what  he  regarded  as  the  scant  courtesy  and  pro- 
crastinated boon  of  the  prophet.  Why  was  he  not 
received  as  a  man  of  the  highest  distinction  ?  What 
necessity  could  there  be  for  sending  him  all  the  way 
to  the  Jordan  ?  And  why  was  he  bidden  to  wash  in 
that  wretched,  useless,  tortuous  stream,  rather  than  in 

'  Kiisha  would  not  be  likely  to  touch  the  place. 


V.  1-27.]  THE  STORY  OF  NAAMAN  53 


the  pure  and  flowing  waters  of  his  own  native  Abanah 
and  Pharpar?^  How  was  he  to  tell  that  this  "Man 
of  God  "  did  not  design  to  mock  him  by  sending  him 
on  a  fool's  errand,  so  that  he  would  come  back  as  a 
laughing-stock  both  to  the  Israelites  and  to  his  own 
people  ?  Perhaps  he  had  not  felt  any  great  faith  in 
the  prophet,  to  begin  with  ;  but  whatever  he  once  felt 
had  now  vanished.  He  turned  and  went  away  in  a 
rage. 

But  in  this  crisis  the  affection  of  his  friends  and 
servants  stood  him  in  good  stead.  Addressing  him,  in 
their  love  and  pity,  by  the  unusual  term  of  honour 
"my  father,"  they  urged  upon  him  that,  as  he  certainly 
would  not  have  refused  some  great  test,  there  was  no 
reason  why  he  should  refuse  this  simple  and  humble 
one. 

He  was  won  over  by  their  reasonings,  and  descend- 
ing the  hot  steep  valley  of  the  Jordan,  bathed  himself 
in  the  river  seven  times.  God  healed  him,  and,  as 
Elisha  had  promised,  "his  flesh,"  corroded  by  leprosy, 
"  came  again  like  the  flesh  of  a  little  child,  and  he  was 
clean." 

This  healing  of  Naaman  is  alluded  to  by  our  Lord 
to  illustrate  the  truth  that  the  love  of  God  extended 
farther  than  the  limits  of  the  chosen  race ;  that  His 
Fatherhood  is  co-extensive  with  the  whole  family  of 
man. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  the  transport  of  a  man 
cured  of  this  most  loathsome  and  humiliating  of  all 
earthly  afflictions.  Naaman,  who  seems  to  have  pos- 
sessed "a  mind  naturally  Christian,"  was  filled  with 
gratitude.  Unlike  the  thankless  Jewish  lepers  whom 
Christ  cured  as  He  left  Engannim,  this  alien  returned 

'  Now  the  Burdda  ("  cold  ")  and  the  Nahr-el-Awaj. 


54  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


to  give  glory  to  God.  Once  more  the  whole  imposing 
cavalcade  rode  through  the  streets  of  Samaria,  and 
stopped  at  Elisha's  door.  This  time  Naaman  was 
■  'admitted  into  his  presence.  He  saw,  and  no  doubt 
Elisha  had  strongly  impressed  on  him  the  truth,  that 
his  healing  was  the  work  not  of  man  but  of  God ;  and 
as  he  had  found  no  help  in  the  deities  of  Syria,  he 
confessed  that  the  God  of  Israel  was  the  only  true  God 
among  those  of  the  nations.  In  token  of  his  thankful- 
ness he  presses  Elisha,  as  God's  instrument  in  the 
unspeakable  mercy  which  has  been  granted  to  him  .o 
accept  "a  blessing"  (i.e.,  a  present)  from  him — "from 
thy  servant,"  as  he  humbly  styled  himself 

Elisha  was  no  greedy  Balaam.  It  was  essential  that 
Naaman  and  the  Syrians  should  not  look  on  him  as  on 
some  vulgar  sorcerer  who  wrought  wonders  for  "  the 
rewards  of  divination."  His  wants  were  so  simple  that 
he  stood  above  temptation.  His  desires  and  treasures 
were  not  on  earth.  To  put  an  end  to  all  importunit}', 
he  appealed  to  Jehovah  with  his  usual  solemn  formula — 
"  As  the  Lord  liveth  before  Avhom  I  stand,  I  will  receive 
no  present."^ 

Still  more  deeply  impressed  by  the  prophet's  incor- 
ruptible superiority  to  so  much  as  a  suspicion  of  low 
motives,  Naaman  asked  that  he  might  receive  two 
mules'  burden  of  earth  wherewith  to  build  an  altar  to 
the  God  of  Israel  of  His  own  sacred  soil.-     The  very 

'  Compare  the  answer  of  Abraham  to  the  King  of  Sodom  (Gen, 
xiv.  23.) 

'^  The  feeling  which  influenced  Naaman  is  the  same  which  led 
the  Jews  to  build  Nahardea  in  Persia  of  stones  from  Jerusalem. 
Altars  were  to  be  of  earth  (Exod.  xx.  24),  but  no  altar  is  mentioned 
in  2  Kings  v.  17,  and  the  LXX.  does  not  even  specify  earth  (yofios 
^070$  rnJLibvujv). 


V.  1-27.]  THE  STORY  OF  NAAMAN  55 

soil  ruled  by  such  a  God  must,  he  thought,  be  holier 
than  other  soil  ;  and  he  wished  to  take  it  back  to 
Syria,  just  as  the  people  of  Pisa  rejoiced  to  fill  their 
Campo  Santo  with  mould  from  the  Holy  Land,  and 
just  as  mothers  like  to  baptize  their  children  in  water 
brought  home  from  the  Jordan.  Henceforth,  said 
Naaman,  I  will  offer  burnt-ofifering  and  sacrifice  to  no 
God  but  unto  Jehovah.  Yet  there  was  one  difficulty 
in  the  way.  When  the  King  of  Syria  went  to  worship 
in  the  temple  of  his  god  Rimmon  it  was  the  duty  of 
Naaman  to  accompany  him.^  The  king  leaned  on  his 
hand,  and  when  he  bowed  before  the  idol  it  was 
Naaman's  duty  to  bow  also.  He  begged  that  for  this 
concession  God  would  pardon  him. 

Elisha's  answer  was  perhaps  different  from  what 
Elijah  might  have  given.  He  practically  allowed 
Naaman  to  give  this  sign  of  outward  compliance  with 
idolatry,  by  saying  to  him,  "  Go  in  peace."  It  is  from 
this  circumstance  that  the  phrase  "  to  bow  in  the  house 
of  Rimmon "  has  become  proverbial  to  indicate  a 
dangerous  and  dishonest  compromise.  But  Elisha's 
permission  must  not  be  misunderstood.  He  did  but 
hand  over  this  semi-heathen  convert  to  the  grace  of 
God.  It  must  be  remembered  that  he  lived  in  days 
long  preceding  the  conviction  that  proselytism  is  a  part 
of  true  religion ;  in  days  when  the  thought  of  missions 
to  heathen  lands  was  utterly  unknown.  The  position 
of  Naaman   was   wholly   different    from    that   of  any 


'  This  is  the  only  place  in  Scripture  where  Rimmon  is  mentioned, 
though  we  have  the  name  Tab-Rimmon  ("  Rimmon  is  good"),  I  Kings 
XV.  l8,  and  Hadad-Rimmon  (Zech.  xii,  ll).  He  was  the  god  of  the 
thunder.  The  word  means  "  pomegranate,"  and  some  have  fancied 
that  this  was  one  of  his  symbols.  But  the  resemblance  maj'  be 
accidental,  and  the  name  was  properly  Raiuman, 


S6  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Israelite.  He  was  only  the  convert,  or  the  half-convert 
of  a  day,  and  though  he  acknowledged  the  supremacy 
of  Jehovah  as  alone  worthy  of  his  worship,  he  probably 
shared  in  the  belief — common  even  in  Israel — that  there 
were  other  gods,  local  gods,  gods  of  the  nations,  to 
whom  Jehovah  might  have  divided  the  limits  of  their 
power.^  To  demand  of  one  who,  like  Naaman,  had 
been  an  idolater  all  his  days,  the  sudden  abandonment 
of  every  custom  and  tradition  of  his  life,  would  have 
been  to  demand  from  him  an  unreasonable,  and,  in  his 
circumstances,  useless  and  all  but  impossible  self- 
sacrifice.  The  best  way- was  to  let  him  feel  and  see 
for  himself  the  futility  of  Rimmon-worship.  If  he 
were  not  frightened  back  from  his  sudden  faith  in 
Jehovah,  the  scruple  of  conscience  which  he  already 
felt  in  making  his  request  might  naturally  grow  within 
him  and  lead  him  to  all  that  was  best  and  highest. 
The  temporary  condonation  of  an  imperfection  might 
be  a  wise  step  towards  the  ultimate  realisation  of  a  truth. 
We  cannot  at  all  blame  Elisha,  if,  with  such  knowledge 
as  he  then  possessed,  he  took  a  mercifully  tolerant  view 
of  the  exigencies  of  Naaman's  position.  The  bowing 
in  the  house  of  Rimmon  under  such  conditions  probably 
seemed  to  him  no  more  than  an  act  of  outward  respect 
to  the  king  and  to  the  national  religion  in  a  case  where 
no  evil  results  could  follow  from  Naaman's  example.^ 


'   See  Deut.  xxxii.  8,  where  the  LXX.  has  Kara  dpidixbv  dyy^Xcoi'. 

*  The  moral  difficulty  must  have  been  early  felt,  for  the  Alexandrian 
LXX.  reads  Kal  irpoaKW-qauj  &/j.a  avrip  eyu)  Kvplip  ry  Qe(f  /xov.  But 
he  would  still  be  bowing  in  the  House  of  Rimmon,  though  he  might 
in  his  heart  worship'God.  "  Elisha,  like  Elijah  "  (says  Dean  Stanley), 
"made  no  effort  to  set  right  what  had  gone  so  wrong.  Their  mission 
was  to  make  the  best  of  what  they  found ;  not  to  bring  back  a  rule 
of  religion  which  had  passed  away,  but  to  dwell  on  the  Moral  Law 
which  could   be  fulfilled  everywhere,   not  on  the  Ceremonial  Law 


V.  1-27.]  THE.   STORY  OF  NAAMAN  57 

But  the  general  principle  that  we  must  not  bow  in 
the  house  of  Rimmon  remains  unchanged.  The  light 
and  knowledge  vouchsafed  to  us  far  transcend  those 
which  existed  in  times  when  men  had  not  seen  the 
days  of  the  Son  of  Man.  The  only  rule  which  sincere 
Christians  can  follow  is  to*  have  no  truce  with  Canaan, 
no  halting  between  two  opinions,  no  tampering,  no 
compliance,  no  connivance,  no  complicity  with  evil, — 
even  no  tolerance  of  evil  as  far  as  their  own  conduct 
is  concerned.  No  good  man,  in  the  light  of  the  Gospel 
dispensation,  could  condone  himself  in  seeming  to 
sanction — still  less  in  doing — anything  which  in  his 
opinion  ought  not  to  be  done,  or  in  saying  anything 
which  implied  his  own  acquiescence  in  things  which  he 
knows  to  be  evil.  "Sir,"  said  a  parishioner  to  one 
of  the  non-juring  clergy  :  "  there  is  many  a  man  who  has 
made  a  great  gash  in  his  conscience  ;  cannot  you  make  a 
little  nick  in  yours  ?  "  No  I  a  little  nick  is,  in  one  sense, 
as  fatal  as  great  gash.  It  is  an  abandonment  of  the 
principle  ;  it  is  a  violation  of  the  Law.  The  wrong  of 
it  consists  in  this — that  all  evil  begins,  not  in  the  com- 
mission of  great  crimes,  but  in  the  slight  divergence 
from  right  rules.  The  angle  made  by  two  lines  may  be 
infinitesimally  small,  but  produce  the  lines  and  it  may 
require  infinitude  to  span  the  separation  between  the 
lines  which  inclose  so  tiny  an  angle.  The  wise  man 
gave  the  only  true  rule  about  wrong-doing,  when  he 
said,  *'  Enter  not  into  the  path  of  the  wicked  and  go  not 
in  the  way  of  evil  men.     Avoid  it,  pass  not  by  it,  turn 


which  circumstances  seemed  to  have  put  out  of  their  reach  :  '  not 
sending  the  Shunammite  to  Jerusalem  '  (says  Cardinal  Newman),  '  not 
eager  for  a  proselyte  in  Naaman,  yet  making  the  heathen  fear  the 
Name  of  God,  and  proving  to  them  that  there  was  a  prophet  in 
Israel'"  (Stanley,  Lectures,  ii.  377;  Newman,  Sermons,  viii.  415). 


58  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

from  it  and  pass  awa}^"  ^  And  the  reason  for  his  rule 
is  that  the  beginning  of  sin — Hke  the  beginning  of 
strife — "  is  as  when  one  letteth  out  water."  ^  - 

The  proper  answer  to  all  abuses  of  any  supposed 
concession  to  the  lawfulness  of  bowing  in  the  house 
of  Rimmon — if  that  be  interpreted  to  mean  the  doing 
of  anything  which  our  consciences  cannot  wholly  ap- 
prove— is  Obsta  principiis — avoid  the  beginnings  of  evil. 

"We  are  not  worst  at  once;  the  course  of  evil 
Begins  so  slowly,  and  from  such  slight  source, 
An  infant's  hand  might  stem  the  breach  with  clay ; 
But  let  the  stream  grow  wider,  and  philosophy, 
Age,   and  religion  too,   may  strive  in   vain 
To  stem  the  headstrong  current." 

The  mean  cupidity  of  Gehazi,  the  servant  of  Elisha, 
gives  a  deplorable  sequel  to  the  story  of  the  prophet's^ 
'magnanimity.  This  man's  wretched  greed  did  its 
utmost  to  nuHify  the  good  influence  of  his  master's 
example.  There  may  be  more  wicked  acts  recorded 
in  Scripture  than  that  of  Gehazi,  but  there  is  scarcely 
one  which  shows  so  paltry  a  disposition. 

He  had  heard  the  conversation  between  his  master 
and  the  Syrian  marshal,  and  his  cunning  heart  despised 
as  a  futile  sentimentality  the  magnanimity  which  had 
refu.sed  an  eagerly  proffered  reward.  Naaman  was 
rich  :  he  had  received  a  priceless  boon  ;  it  would  be 
rather  a  pleasure  to  him  than  otherwise  to  return  for 
it  some  acknowledgment  which  he  would  not  miss. 
Had  he  not  even  seemed  a  little  hurt  by  Elisha's  refusal 
to  receive  it  ?  What  possible  harm  could  there  be  in 
taking  what  he  was  anxious  to  give  ?  And  how  useful 
those  magnificent  presents  would  be,  and  to  what 
excellent  uses  could  the}'  be  put  I  He  could  not 
approve   of  the   fantastic  and   unpractical  scrupulosity 

'  Piov.  iv.  14,  15.  -  Prov.  xvii.  14. 


V.  1-27.]  THE  STORY  OF  NAAMAN  59 


which  had  led  Elisha  to  refuse  the  "  blessing "  which 
he  had  so  richly  earned.  Such  attitudes  of  unworldli- 
ness  seemed  entirely  foolish  to  Gehazi. 

So  pleaded  the  Judas-spirit  within  the  man.  By 
such  specious  delusions  he  .inflamed  his  own  covetous- 
ness,  and  fostered  the  evil  temptation  which  had  taken 
sudden  and  powerful  hold  upon  his  heart,  until  it  took 
shape  in  a  wicked  resolve. 

The  mischief  of  Elisha's  quixotic  refusal  was  done, 
but  it  could  be  speedily  undone,  and  no  one  would  be 
the  worse.     The  evil  spirit  was  whispering  to  Gehazi : — 

"Be  mine  and  Sin's  for  one  short  hour;  and  then 
Be  all  thy  life  the  happiest  man  of  men." 

"  Behold,"  he  said,  with  some  contempt  both  for 
Elisha  and  for  Naaman,  "  my  master  hath  let  off  this 
Naaman  the  Syrian  ;  but  as  the  Lord  liveth  I  will  run 
after  him,  and  take  somewhat  of  him." 

"As  the  Lord  liveth!"  It  had  been  a  favourite 
appeal  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  and  the  use  of  it  by 
Gehazi  shows  how  utterly  meaningless  and  how  very 
dangerous  such  solemn  words  become  when  they  are 
degraded  into  formulae.^  It  is  thus  that  the  habit  of 
swearing  begins.  The  light  use  of  holy  words  very 
soon  leads  to  their  utter  degradation.  How  keen  is 
the  satire  in  Cowper's  little  story  : — 

"  A  Persian,   humble  servant  of  the  sun, 
Who,  though  devout,  yet  bigotry  had  none, 
Hearing  a  lawyer,  grave  in  his  address, 
"With  adjurations  every  word  impress, — 
Supposed  the  man  a  bishop,   or,  at  least, 
God's  Name  so  often  on  his  lips — a  priest. 
Bowed  at  the  close  with  all  his  gracious  airs, 
And  begged  an  interest  in  his  frequent  prayers!" 


'  On  Gehazi's  lips  it  meant  no  more  than  the  incessant  Wallah,  "by 
God,"  of  Mohammedans. 


6o  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

Had  Gehazi  felt  their  true  meaning — had  he  realised 
that  on  Elisha's  lips  they  meant  something  infinitely 
more  real  than  on  his  own,  he  would  not  have  forgotten 
that  in  Elisha's  answer  to  Naaman  they  had  all  the 
validity  of  an  oath,  and  that  he  was  inflicting  on  his 
master  a  shameful  wrong,  when  he  led  Naaman  to 
believe  that,  after  so  sacred  an  adjuration,  the  prophet 
had  frivolously  changed  his  mind. 

Gehazi  had  not  very  far  to  run,^  for  in  a  country 
full  of  hills,  and  of  which  the  roads  are  rough,  horses 
and  chariots  advance  but  slowly.  Naaman,  chancing 
to  glance  backwards,  saw  the  prophet's  attendant 
running  after  him.  Anticipating  that  he  must  be  the 
bearer  of  some  message  from  Elisha,  he  not, only  halted 
the  cavalcade,  but  sprang  down  from  his  chariot,"'^  and 
went  to  meet  him  with  the  anxious  question,  "  Is  all 
well  ?  " 

"  Well,"  answered  Gehazi ;  and  then  had  ready  his 
cunning  lie.  "  Two  youths,"  he  said,  "  of  the  prophetic 
schools  had  just  unexpectedly  come  to  his  master  from 
the  hill  country  of  Ephraim  ;  and  though  he  would 
accept  nothing  for  himself,  Elisha  would  be  glad  if 
Naaman  would  spare  him  two  changes  of  garments, 
and  one  talent  of  silver  for  these  poor  members  of  a 
sacred  calling."^ 

Naaman  must  have  been  a  little  more  or  a  little  less 
than  human  if  he  did  not  feel  a  touch  of  disappointment 
on  hearing  this  message.     The  gift  was  nothing  to  him. 


'  2  Kings  V.  19.  Heb.,  kibWath  aretz,  "a  little  way" — literally, 
"a  space  of  country."  (The  Vatican  LXX.  follows  another  reading, 
eh  At^paOk  rr/s  yrjs  ;  Vulg.,  electa  terras  tempore  \1'\.') 

'  LXX.,  KaTeir-qd-r}<rev, 

"  A  talent  of  silver  was  worth  about  ;^400 — an  enormous  sum  for 
two  half-naked  youths. 


V.  1-27.]  THE  STORY  OF  NAAMAN  6i 

It  was  a  delight  to  him  to  give  it,  if  only  to  lighten 
a  little  the  burden  of  gratitude  which  he  felt  towards 
his  benefactor.  But  if  he  had  felt  elevated  by  the 
magnanimous  example  of  Elisha's  disinterestedness,  he 
must  have  thought  that  this  hasty  request  pointed  to 
a  little  regret  on  the  prophet's  part  for  his  noble  self- 
denial.  After  all,  then,  even  prophets  were  but  men, 
and  gold  after  all  was  gold  !  The  change  of  mind 
about  the  gift  brought  Elisha  a  little  nearer  the  ordinary 
level  of  humanity,  and,  so  far,  it  acted  as  a  sort  of 
disenchantment  from  the  high  ideal  exhibited  by  his 
former  refusal.  And  so  Naaman  said,  with  alacrity, 
"Be  content:  take  two  talents." 

The  fact  that  Gehazi's  conduct  thus  inevitably  com- 
promised his  master,  and  undid  the  effects  of  his 
example,  is  part  of  the  measure  of  the  man's  apostacy. 
It  showed  how  false  and  hypocritical  was  his  position, 
how  unworthy  he  was  to  be  the  ministering  servant  of 
a  prophet.  Elisha  was  evidently  deceived  in  the  man 
altogether.  The  heinousness  of  his  guilt  lies  in  the 
words  Corruptio  optinii  pessima.  When  religion  is  used 
for  a  cloak  of  covetousness,  of  usurping  ambition,  of 
secret  immorality,  it  becomes  deadlier  than  infidelity. 
Men  raze  the  sanctuary,  and  build  their  idol  temples 
on  the  hallowed  ground.  They  cover  their  base 
encroachments  and  impure  designs  with  the  "cloke 
of  profession,  doubly  lined  with  the  fox-fur  of  hypocrisy," 
and  hide  the  leprosy  which  is  breaking  out  upon  their 
foreheads  with  the  golden  petalon  on  which  is  inscribed 
the  title  of  "  holiness  to  the  Lord." 

At  first  Gehazi  did  not  like  to  take  so  large  a  sum 
as  two  talents ;  but  the  crime  was  already  committed, 
and  there  was  not  much  more  harm  done  in  taking  two 
talents  than  in  taking  one.      Naaman  urged  him,  and 


62  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

it  is  very  improbable  that,  unless  the  chances  of  detec- 
tion weighed  with  him,  he  needed  much  urging.  So 
the  Syrian  weighed  out  silver  ingots  to  the  amount  of 
two  talents,  and  putting  them  in  two  satchels  laid  them 
on  two  of  his  servants  and  told  them  to  carry  the  money 
before  Gehazi  to  Elisha's  house.  But  Gehazi  had  to 
keep  a  look-out  lest  his  nefarious  dealings  should  be 
observed,  and  when  they  came  to  Ophel — the  word 
means  the  foot  of  the  hill  of  Samaria,  or  some  part 
of  the  fortifications  ^ — he  took  the  bags  from  the  two 
Syrians,  dismissed  them,  and  carried  the  money  to 
some  place  where  he  could  conceal  it  in  the  house. 
Then,  as  though  nothing  had  happened,  with  his  usual 
smooth  face  of  sanctimonious  integrity,  the  pious  Jesuit 
went  and  stood  before  his  master. 

He  had  not  been  unnoticed  I  His  heart  must  have 
sunk  within  him  when  there  smote  upon  his  ear  Elisha's 
question, — 

"  Whence  comest  thou,  Gehazi  ?  " 

But  one  lie  is  as  easy  as  another,  and  Gehazi  was 
doubtless  an  adept  at  lying. 

"  Thy  servant  went  no  whither,"  he  replied,  with  an 
air  of  innocent  surprise. 

"  Went  not  my  beloved  one  ?  "  ^  said  Elisha — and  he 
must  have  said  it  with  a  groan,  as  he  thought  how 
utterly  unworthy  the  youth,  whom  he  thus  called  **  my 
loving  heart"  or  "my  dear  friend," — "when  the  man 
turned  from  his   chariot   to   meet  thee  ? "     It  may  be 

'  2  Kings  v.  24.  The  LXX.  (eis  7-6  ffKoreivbv)  seems  to  have  read 
7QV?  (ophef);  "darkness,"  a  treasury  or  secret  place,  for  PDJ?  and  so 
the  Vulgate /rt^M  vesperi. 

-  2  Kings  V.  26.  The  verse  is  so  interpreted  by  some  critics, 
especially  Ewald,  followed  by  Stanley.  Margin,  R.V.:  "Mine  heart 
went  not  from  me,  when  "  etc. 


1-27.]  THE  STORY  OF  NAAMAN  63 


that  from  the  hill  of  Samaria  Elisha  had  seen  it  all,  or 
that  he  had  been  told  by  one  who  had  seen  it.  If  not,  he 
had  been  rightly  led  to  read  the  secret  of  his  servant's 
guilt.  "  Is  it  a  time,"  he  asked,  "  to  act  thus  ?  "  Did 
not  my  example  show  thee  that  there  was  a  high  object 
in  refusing  this  Syrian's  gifts,  and  in  leading  him  to 
feel  that  the  servants  of  Jehovah  do  His  bidding  with 
no  afterthought  of  sordid  considerations  ?  Are  there 
not  enough  troubles  about  us  actual  and  impending, 
to  show  that  this  is  no  time  for  the  accumulation  of 
earthly  treasures?  Is  it  a  time  to  receive  money — 
and  all  that  money  will  procure  ?  to  receive  garments, 
and  olive-yards  and  vineyards,  and  oxen,  and  men- 
servants  and  maid-servants  ?  Has  a  prophet  no  higher 
aim  than  the  accumulation  of  earthly  goods,  and  are  his 
needs  such  as  earthly  goods  can  supply  ?  And  hast 
thou,  the  daily  friend  and  attendant  of  a  prophet,  learnt 
so  little  from  his  precepts  and  his  example  ? 

Then  followed  the  tremendous  penalty  for  so  grievous 
a  transgression — a  transgression  made  up  of  meanness, 
irreverence,  greed,  cheating,  treachery,  and  lies. 

"  The  leprosy  therefore  of  Naaman  shall  cleave  unto 
thee,  and  unto  thy  seed  for  ever  I  "  "  Oh  heavy  talents 
of  Gehazi  I  "  exclaims  Bishop  Hall :  "  Oh  the  horror 
of  the  one  unchangeable  suit !  How  much  better  had 
been  a  light  purse  and  a  homely  coat,  with  a  sound 
body  and  a  clean  soul !  " 

"  And  he  went  out  from  his  presence  a  leper  as  white 
as  snow."  ^ 

It  is  the  characteristic  of  the  leprous  taint  in  the 
system  to  be  thus  suddenly  developed,  and  apparently 
in  crises  of  sudden  and  overpowering  emotion  it  might 
affect  the  whole  blood.     And  one  of  the  many  morals 


Exod.  iv.  6;  Num.  xii,  10. 


64  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

which  he  in  Gehazi's  story  is  again  that  moral  to  which 
the  world's  whole  experience  sets  its  seal — that  though 
the  guilty  soul  may  sell  itself  for  a  desired  price,  the 
sum-total  of  that  price  is  nought.  It  is  Achan's  ingots 
buried  under  the  sod  on  which  stood  his  tent.  It  is 
Naboth's  vineyard  made  abhorrent  to  Ahab  on  the  day 
he  entered  it.  It  is  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  which 
Judas  dashed  with  a  shriek  upon  the  Temple  floor.  It 
is  Gehazi's  leprosy  for  which  no  silver  talents  or  changes 
of  raiment  could  atone. 

The  story  of  Gehazi — of  the  son  of  the  prophets  who 
would  naturally  have  succeeded  Elisha  as  Elisha  had 
succeeded  Elijah — must  have  had  a  tremendous  signifi- 
cance to  warn  the  members  of  the  prophetic  schools 
from  the  peril  of  covetousness.  That  peril,  as  all 
history  proves  to  us,  is  one  from  which  popes  and 
priests,  monks,  and  even  nominally  ascetic  and  nomin- 
ally pauper  communities,  have  never  been  exempt ; — 
to  which,  it  may  even  be  said,  that  they  have  been 
peculiarly  liable.  Mercenariness  and  falsity,  displayed 
under  the  pretence  of  religion,  were  never  more  over- 
whelmingly rebuked.  Yet,  as  the  Rabbis  said,  it  would 
have  been  better  if  Elisha,  in  repelling  with  the  left 
hand,  had  also  drawn  with  the  right.^ 


The  fine  story  of  Elisha  and  Naaman,  and  the  fall 
and  punishment  of  Gehazi,  is  followed  by  one  of  the 
anecdotes  of  the  prophet's  life  which  appears  to  our 
unsophisticated,  perhaps  to  our  imperfectly  enlightened 
judgment,  to  rise  but  little  above  the  ecclesiastical 
portents  related  in  mediaeval  hagiologies. 

'  The  later  Rabbis  thought  that  Elisha  was  too  severe  with  Gehazi, 
and  was  punished  with  sickness  because  "  he  repelled  him  with  both 
his  hands"  {Bava-Metsia,  f.  87,  i,  and  Yalkut Jeremiah). 


V.  1-27.1  THE  STORY  OF  N A  AM  AN  6$ 

At  some  unnamed  place — perhaps  Jericho — the  house 
of  the  Sons  of  the  Prophets  had  become  too  small  for 
their  numbers  and  requirements,  and  they  asked  Elisha's 
leave  to  go  down  to  the  Jordan  and  cut  beams  to  make 
a  new  residence.  Elisha  ^ave  them  leave,  and  at  their 
request  consented  to  go  with  them.  While  they  were 
hewing,  the  axe-head  of  one  of  them  fell  into  the  water, 
and  he  cried  out,  "  Alas  I  master,  it  was  borrowed  !  " 
Elisha  ascertained  where  it  had  fallen.  He  then  cut 
down  a  stick,^  and  cast  it  on  the  spot,  and  the  iron 
swam  and  the  man  recovered  it. 

The  story  is  perhaps  an  imaginative  reproduction  of 
some  unwonted  incident.  At  any  rate,  we  have  no 
sufficient  evidence  to  prove  that  it  may  not  be  so.  It 
is  wholly  unlike  the  economy  invariably  shown  in  the 
Scripture  narratives  which  tell  us  of  the  exercise  of 
supernatural  power.  All  the  eternal  laws  of  nature 
are  here  superseded  at  a  word,  as  though  it  were  an 
every-day  matter,  without  even  any  recorded  invoca- 
tion of  Jehovah,  to  restore  an  axe-head,  which  could 
obviously  have  been  recovered  or  resupplied  in  some 
much  less  stupendous  way  than  by  making  iron  swim 
on  the  surface  of  a  swift-flowing  river.  It  is  easy  to 
invent  conventional  and  a  priori  apologies  to  show  that 
religion  demands  the  unquestioning  acceptance  of  this 
prodigy,  and  that  a  man  must  be  shockingly  wicked  who 
does  not  feel  certain  that  it  happened  exactly  in  the 
literal  sense  ;  but  whether  the  doubt  or  the  defence  be 
morally  worthier,  is  a  thing  which  God  alone  can  judge. ^ 

■  The  Hebrew  word  for  "cut  off"  (jqatsab)  is  very  rare.  LXX., 
air^KvixTi  ^vKov  ;  Vulg.,  prcecidit  lignum. 

^  It  must  be  further  borne  in  mind  that  "the  iron  did  swim"  (A.V.) 
is  less  accurate  than  "  made  the  iron  to  swim  "  (R. V.).  The  LXX. 
has  eireir6\aa-e,  "  brought  to  the  surface."  Von  Gerlach  says,  "  He 
thrust  the  stick  into  the  water,  and  raised  the  iron  to  the  surface." 

5 


CHAPTER   VII 

ELISHA   AND    THE  SYRIANS 

2  Kings  vi.  I — 23 

"Now  there  was  found  in  the  city  a  poor  wise  man,  and  he  by  his 
wisdom  deHvered  the  city," — Ecci.es.  ix.  15. 

ELISHA,  unlike  his  master  Elijah,  was,  during  a 
great  part  of  his  long  career,  intimately  mixed 
up  with  the  political  and  military  fortunes  of  his  country. 
The  king  of  Israel  who  occurs  in  the  following  narra- 
tives is  left  nameless — always  the  sign  of  later  and 
more  vague  tradition  ;  but  he  has  usually  been  identified 
with  Jehoram  ben-Ahab,  and,  though  not  without  some 
misgivings,  we  shall  assume  that  the  identification  is 
correct.  His  dealings  with  Elisha  never  seem  to  have 
been  very  cordial,  though  on  one  occasion  he  calls  him 
**  my  father."  The  relations  between  them  at  times 
became  strained  and  even  stormy. 

His  reign  was  rendered  miserable  by  the  incessant 
infestation  of  Syrian  marauders.  In  these  difficulties 
he  was  greatly  helped  by  Elisha.  The  prophet 
repeatedly  frustrated  the  designs  of  the  Syrian  king 
by  revealing  to  Jeroboam  the  places  of  Benhadad's 
ambuscades,  so  that  Jeroboam  could  change  the  destina- 
tion of  his  hunting  parties  or  other  movements,  and 
escape  the  plots  laid  to  seize  his  person.  Benhadad, 
finding   himself  thus    frustrated,   and    suspecting   that 

66 


vi.  1-23.]  ELISHA   AND    THE  SYRIANS  67 

it  was  due  to  treachery,  called  his  servants  together 
in  grief  and  indignation,  and  asked  who  was  the 
traitor  among  them.  His  officers  assured  him  that 
they  were  all  faithful,  but  that  the  secrets  whispered 
in  his  bed-chamber  were  revealed  to  Jehoram  by  Elisha 
the  prophet  in  Israel,  whose  fame  had  spread  into 
Syria,  perhaps  because  of  the  cure  of  Naaman.  The 
king,  unable  to  take  any  step  while  his  counsels  were 
thus  published  to  his  enemies,  thought — not  very  con- 
sistently— that  he  could  surprise  and  seize  Elisha 
himself,  and  sent  to  find  out  where  he  was.  At  that 
time  he  was  living  in  Dothan,  about  twelve  miles  north- 
east of  Samaria/  and  Benhadad  sent  a  contingent  with 
horses  and  chariots  by  night  to  surround  the  city,  and 
prevent  any  escape  from  its  gates.  That  he  could  thus 
besiege  a  town  so  near  the  capital  shows  the  helpless- 
ness to  which  Israel  had  been  now  reduced. 

When  Elisha's  servitor  rose  in  the  morning  he  was 
terrified  to  see  the  Syrians  encamped  round  the  city, 
and  cried  to  Elisha,  "  Alas  !  my  master,  what  shall  we 
do?" 

"  Fear  not,"  said  the  prophet :  "  they  that  be  with 
us  are  more  than  they  that  be  with  them."  He 
prayed  God  to  grant  the  youth  the  same  open  eyes, 
the  same  spiritual  vision  which  he  himself  enjoyed  ;  and 
the  youth  saw  the  mountain  full  of  horses  and  chariots 
of  fire  round  about  Elisha. 

This  incident  has  been  full  of  comfort   to  millions, 

as  a  beautiful  illusti'ation  of  the  truth  that — 

"  The  hosts  of  God  encamp  around 
The  dwellings  of  the  just ; 
Deliverance  He  affords  to  all 
Who  on  His  promise  trust. 

'  Gen,  xxxvii.  17,  Dothain,  "two  wells  "  (?). 


68  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

"  Oh,  make  but  trial  of  His  love, 
Experience  will  decide, 
How  blest  are  they,  and  only  they, 
Who  in  His  truth  confide." 

The  youth's  affectionate  alarm  had  not  been  shared 
by  his  master.  He  knew  that  to  every  true  servant 
of  God  the  promise  will  be  fulfilled,  **  He  shall  defend 
thee  under  His  wings  ;  thou  shalt  be  safe  under  His 
feathers ;  His  righteousness  and  truth  shall  be  thy 
shield  and  buckler."^ 

Were  our  eyes  similarly  opened,  we  too  should  see 
the  reality  of  the  Divine  protection  and  providence, 
whether  under  the  visible  form  of  angelic  ministrants 
or  not.  Scripture  in  general,  and  the  Psalms  in 
particular,  are  full  of  the  serenity  inspired  by  this 
conviction.  The  story  of  Elisha  is  a  picture-com- 
mentary on  the  Psalmist's  words  :  "  The  angel  of  the 
Lord  encampeth  round  them  that  fear  Him,  and 
delivereth  them."  ^  "  He  shall  give  His  angels  charge 
over  thee,  to  keep  thee  in  all  thy  ways."^  ''And  I 
will  encamp  about  Mine  house  because  of  the  army, 
because  of  him  that  passeth  by,  and  because  of  him 
that  returneth  :  and  no  oppressor  shall  pass  through 
them  any  more  :  for  now  have  I  seen  with  Mine  eyes."* 
"  The  angel  of  His  presence  saved  them  :  in  His  love 
and  in  His  pity  He  redeemed  them  ;  and  He  bare  them, 
and  carried  them  all  the  days  of  old."  ^ 

But  what  is  the  exact  meaning  of  all  these  lovely 
promises  ?  They  do  not  mean  that  God's  children  and 
saints  will  always  be  shielded  from  anguish  or  defeat, 
from  the  triumph  of  their  enemies,  or  even  from  appa- 
rently hopeless  and  final  failure,   or  miserable  death. 

'  Psalm  xci.  4.  *  Zech.  ix.  8. 

'^  Psalm.xxxiv.  7,  '"  Isa.  Ixiii.  9. 

*  Psalm  xci.  11. 


vi.  1-23.]  ELISHA   AND    THE  SYRIANS         -^--.^^^      69 

The  lesson  is  not  that  their  persons  shall  be  inviolable, 
or  that  the  enemies  who  advance  against  them  to  eat 
up  their  flesh  shall  always  stumble  and  fall.  The 
experiences  of  tens  of  thousands  of  troubled  lives  and 
martyred  ends  instantly  prove  the  futility  of  any  such 
reading  of  these  assurances.  The  saints  of  God,  the 
prophets  of  God,  have  died  in  exile  and  in  prison,  have 
been  tortured  on  the  rack  and  broken  on  the  wheel, 
and  burnt  to  ashes  at  innumerable  stakes  ;  they  have 
been  destitute,  afflicted,  tormented,  in  their  lives — stoned, 
beheaded,  sawn  asunder,  in  every  form  of  hideous  death  ; 
they  have  rotted  in  miry  dungeons,  have  starved  on 
desolate  -  shores,  have  sighed  out  their  souls  into  the 
agonising  flame.  The  Cross  of  Christ  stands  as  the 
emblem  and  the  explanation  of  their  lives,  which  fools 
count  to  be  madness,  and  their  end  without  honour. 
On  earth  they  have,  far  more  often  than  not,  been 
crushed  by  the  hatred  and  been  delivered  over  to  the 
will  of  their  enemies.  Where,  then,  have  been  those 
horses  and  chariots  of  fire  ? 

They  have  been  there  no  less  than  around  Elisha 
at  Dothan.  The  eyes  spiritually  opened  have  seen 
them,  even  when  the  sword  flashed,  or  the  flames 
wrapped  them  in  indescribable  torment.  The  sense 
of  God's  protection  has  least  deserted  His  saints 
when  to  the  world's  eyes  they  seemed  to  have  been 
most  utterly  abandoned.  There  has  been  a  joy  in 
prisons  and  at  stakes,  it  has  been  said,  far  exceeding 
the  joy  of  harvest.  "  Pray  for  me,"  said  a  poor  boy 
of  fifteen,  who  was  being  burned  at  Smithfield  in  the 
fierce  days  of  Mary  Tudor.  "  I  would  as  soon  pray 
for  a  dog  as  for  a  heretic  like  thee,"  answered  one  of 
the  spectators.  "  Then,  Son  of  God,  shine  Thou  upon 
me !  "  cried  the  boy-martyr ;  and  instantly,  upon  a  dull 


70  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

and  cloudy  day,  the  sun  shone  out,  and  bathed  his 
young  face  in  glory;  whereat,  says  the  martyrologist, 
men  greatly  marvelled.  But  is  there  one  death-bed  of 
a  saint  on  which  that  glory  has  not  shone  ? 

The  presence  of  those  horses  and  chariots  of  fire, 
unseen  by  the  carnal  eye — the  promises  which,  if  they 
be  taken  literally,  all  experience  seems  to  frustrate — 
mean  two  things,  which  they  who  are  the  heirs  of  such 
promises,  and  who  would  without  them  be  of  all  men 
most  miserable,  have  clearly  understood. 

They  mean,  first,  that  as  long  as  a  child  of  God  is 
on  the  path  of  duty,  and  until  that  duty  has  been 
fulfilled,  he  is  inviolable  and  invulnerable.  He  shall 
tread  upon  the  lion  and  the  adder ;  the  young  lion  and 
the  dragon  shall  he  trample  under  his  feet.  He  shall 
take  up  the  serpent  in  his  hands ;  and  if  he  drink  any 
deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  him.  He  shall  not  be 
afraid  of  the  terror  by  night,  nor  of  the  arrow  that 
flieth  by  day ;  of  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  dark- 
ness, nor  of  the  demon  that  destroyeth  in  the  noonday. 
A  thousand  shall  fall  at  his  right  hand,  and  ten  thou- 
sand beside  him  ;  but  it  shall  not  come  nigh  him.  The 
histories  and  the  legends  of  numberless  marvellous 
deliverances  all  confirm  the  truth  that,  when  a  man 
fears  the  Lord,  He  will  keep  him  in  all  his  ways,  and 
give  His  angels  charge  over  him,  lest  at  any  time  he 
dash  his  foot  against  a  stone.  God  will  not  permit 
any  mortal  force,  or  any  combination  of  forces,  to 
hinder  the  accomplishment  of  the  task  entrusted  to 
His  servant.  It  is  the  sense  of  this  truth  which,  under 
circumstances  however  menacing,  should  enable  us  to 

"  bate  no  jot 
Of  heart  or  hope,  but  still  bear  up,  and  steer 
Uphillward  " 


vi.  1-23.]  ELISHA    AND    THE  SYRIANS  71 

It  is  this  conviction  which  has  nerved  men  to  face 
insuperable  difficulties,  and  achieve  impossibte  and 
unhoped-for  ends.  It  works  in  the  spirit  of  the  cry, 
"  Who  art  thou,  O  great  mountain  ?  Before  Zerubbabel 
be  thou  changed  into  a  plain  !  "  It  inspires  the  faith 
as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  which  is  able  to  say  to  this 
mountain,  "  Be  thou  removed,  and  be  thou  cast  into 
the  sea," — and  it  shall  obey.  It  stands  unmoved  upon 
the  pinnacle  of  the  Temple  whereon  it  has  been 
placed,  while  the  enemy  and  the  tempter,  smitten  by 
amazement,  falls.     In  the  hour  of  difficulty  it  can  cry, — 

"  Rescue  me,   O  Lord,  in  this  mine  evil  hour, 
As  of  old  so  many  by  Thy  mighty  power, — 
Enoch  and  Elias  from  the  common  doom ; 
Noe  from  the  waters  in  a  saving  home  ; 
Abraham  from  the  abounding  guilt  of  heathenesse ; 
Job  from  all  his  multiform  and  fell  distress  ; 
Isaac  when  his  faither's  knife  was  raised  to  slay ; 
Lot  from  burning  Sodom  on  the  judgment  day ; 
Moses  from  the  land  of  bondage  and  despair; 
Daniel  from  the  hungry  lions  in  their  lair; 
And  the  children  three  amid  the  furnace  flame ; 
Chaste  Susanna  from  the  slander  and  the  shame ; 
David  from  Golia,  and  the  wrath  of  Saul ; 
And  the  two  Apostles  from  their  prison-thrall." 

The  strangeness,  the  unexpectedness,  the  apparently 
inadequate  source  of  the  deliverance,  have  deepened  the 
trust  that  it  has  not  been  due  to  accident.  Once,  when 
Felix  of  Nola  was  flying  from  his  enemies,  he  took 
refuge  in  a  cave,  and  he  had  scarcely  entered  it  before 
a  spider  began  to  spin  its  web  over  the  fissure.  The 
pursuer,  passing  by,  saw  the  spider's  web,  and  did  not 
look  into  the  cave ;  and  the  saint,  as  he  came  out  into 
safety,  remarked  :  "  Ubi  Deus  est,  ibi  aranea  murus,  ubi 
non  est  ibi  murus  aranea  "  ("  Where  God  is,  a  spider's 


72  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

web  is  as  a  wall ;  where  He  is  not,  a  wall  is  but  as  a 
spider's  web  "). 

This  is  one  lesson  conveyed  in  the  words  of  Christ 
when  the  Pharisees  told  Him  that  Herod  desired  to 
kill  Him.  He  knew  that  Herod  could  not  kill  Him 
till  He  had  done  His  Father's  will  and  finished  His 
work.  "  Go  ye,"  He  said,  "  and  tell  this  fox,  Behold,  I 
cast  out  devils,  and  I  do  cures  to-day  and  to-morrow, 
and  the  third  day  I  shall  be  perfected.  Nevertheless, 
I  must  walk  to-day,  and  to-morrow,  and  the  day 
following." 

But  had  all  this  been  otherwise — had  Felix  been 
seized  by  his  pursuers  and  perished,  as  has  been  the 
common  lot  of  God's  prophets  and  heroes-^he  would 
not  therefore  have  felt  himself  mocked  by  these  exceed- 
ing great  and  precious  promises.  The  chariots  and 
horses  of  fire  are  still  there,  and  are  there  to  work  a 
deliverance  yet  greater  and  more  eternal.  Their  office 
is  not  ito  deliver  the  perishing  body,  but  to  carry  into 
God's  glory  the  immortal  soul.  This  is  indicated  in 
the  death-scene  of  Elijah.  This  was  the  vision  of  the 
dying  Stephen.  This  was  what  Christian  legend  meant 
when  it  embellished  with  beautiful  incidents  such  scenes 
as  the  death  of  Polycarp.  This  was  what  led  Bunyan 
to  write,  when  he  describes  the  death  of  Christian, 
that  "all  the  trumpets  sounded  for  him  on  the  other 
side."  When  poor  Captain  Allan  Gardiner  lay  starving 
to  death  in  that  Antarctic  isle  with  his  wretched  com- 
panions, he  yet  painted  on  the  entrance  of  the  cave 
which  had  sheltered  them,  and  near  to  which  his 
remains  were  found,  a  hand  pointing  downward  at 
the  words,  "  Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  put  my 
trust  in  Him." 

There  was  a  touch  of  almost  joyful  humour  in  the 


vi.  1-23.]  ELISHA   AND    THE  SYRIANS  73 

way  in  which  Elisha  proceeded  to  use,  in  the  present 
emergency,  the  power  of  Divine  deliverance.  He  seems 
to  have  gone  out  of  the  town  and' down  the  hill  to  the 
Syrian  captains,^  and  prayed  God  to  send  them  illusion 
(a/SX-ei/rta),  so  that  they  mi^ht  be  misled.^  Then  he 
boldly  said  to  them,  **  You  are  being  deceived  :  you 
have  come  the  wrong  way,  and  to  the  wrong  city.  I 
will  take  you  to  the  man  whom  ye  seek."  The  incident 
reminds  us  of  the  story  of  Athanasius,  who,  when  he 
was  being  pursued  on  the  Nile,  took  the  opportunity 
of  a  bend  of  the  river  boldly  to  turn  back  his  boat 
towards  Alexandria.  "Do  you  know  where  Athanasius 
is?"  shouted  the  pursuers.  "He  is  not  far  off!" 
answered  the  disguised  Archbishop ;  and  the  emissaries 
of  Constantius  went  on  in  the  opposite  direction  from 
that  in  which  he  made  his  escape. 

Elisha  led  the  Syrians  in  their  delusion  straight  into 
the  city  of  Samaria,  where  they  suddenly  found  them- 
selves at  the  mercy  of  the  king  and  his  troops.  De- 
lighted at  so  great  a  chance  of  vengeance,  Jehoram  eagerly 
exclaimed,  **  My  father,  shall  I  smite,  shall  I  smite  ?  " 

Certainly  the  request  cannot  be  regarded  as  un- 
natural, when  we  remember  that  in  the  Book  of 
Deuteronomy,  which  did  not  come  to  light  till  after  this 
period,  we  iread  the  rule  that,  when  the  Israelites  had 
taken  a  besieged  city,  "  thou  shalt  smite  every  male 
thereof  with  the  edge  of  the  sword  " ;  ^  and  that  when 
Israel  defeated  the  Midianites  *  they  slew  all  the  males, 


'  Adopting  the  reading  of  the  Syriac  version  :  "  And  when  they 
[Elisha  and  his  servant]  came  down  to  them  [the  Syrians]."  The 
ordinary  reading  is  "  to  him,"  which  makes  the  narrative  less  clear. 

'^  2  Kings  vi.  19.      D'''nijPj  dopacrla,  only  found  in  Gen.  xix.  Ii. 

'  Deut.  XX.  13. 

*  Num.  xxxi.  7. 


74  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

and  Moses  was  wroth  with  the  officers  of  the  host 
because  they  had  not  also  slain  all  the  women.  He 
then  (as  we  are  told)  ordereid  them  to  slay  all  except 
the  virgins,  and  also — horrible  to  relate—"  every  male 
among  the  little  ones."  The  spirit  of  Elisha  on  this 
occasion  was  larger  and  more  merciful.  It  almost  rose 
to  the  spirit  of  Him  who  said,  "  It  was  said  to  them  of 
old  time.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  and  hate  thine 
enemy ;  but  I  say  unto  you.  Love  your  enemies ; 
forgive  them  that  hate  you  ;  do  good  unto  them  that 
despitefuUy  use  you  and  persecute  you."  He  asked 
Jehoram  reproachfully  whether  he  would  even  have 
smitten  those  whom  he  had  taken  captive  with  sword 
and  bow.^  He  not  only  bade  the  king  to  spare  them, 
but  to  set  food  before  them,  and  send  them  home. 
Jehoram  did  so  at  great  expense,  and  the  narrative 
ends  by  telling  us  that  the  example  of  such  merciful 
g;^nerosity  produced  so  favourable  an  impression  that 
"  the  bands  of  Syria  came  no  more  into  the  land  of 
Israel." 

It  is  difficult,  however,  to  see  where  this  statement 
can  be  chronologically  fitted  in.  The  very  next  chapter 
— so  loosely  is  the  compilation  put  together,  so  com- 
pletely is  the  sequence  of  events  here  neglected — begins 
with  telling  us  that  Benhadad  with  all  his  host  went 
up  and  besieged  Samaria.  Any  peace  or  respite  gained 
by  Elisha's  compassionate  magnanimity  must,  in  any 
case,  have  been  exceedingly  short-lived.  Josephus 
tries  to  get  over  the  difficulty  by  drawing  a  sufficiently 
futile  distinction  between  marauding  bands  and  a 
direct  invasion,^  and  he  says  that  King  Benhadad  gave 
up  his  frays  through  fear  of  Elisha.     But,  in  the  first 

'  Vulg.,  Non  percuties ;  neque  enim  cepisti  eos  .  .  .  ut  percutias. 
"^  Jos.,  Anlt,  IX.  iv.  4,  Kp^<t>a  /j.h  ovk4tl  .  .  .  (pavepQis  di. 


vi.  1-23.]  ELISHA   AND    THE  SYRIANS  75 

place,  the  encompassing  of  Dothan  had  been  carried  out 
by  "«  great  host  with  horses  and  chariots,"  which  is 
hardly  consistent  with  the  notion  of  a  foray,  though  it 
creates  new  difficulties  as  to  the  numbers  whom  Elisha 
led  to  Samaria ;  secondly,  the  substitution  of  a  direct 
invasion  for  predatory  incursions  would  have  been  no 
gain  to  Israel,  but  a  more  deadly  peril ;  and,  thirdly, 
if  it  was  fear  of  Elisha  which  stopped  the  king's  raids, 
it  is  strange  that  it  had  no  effect  in  preventing  his 
invasions.  We  have,  however,  no  data  for  any  final 
solution  of  these  problems,  and  it  is  useless  to  meet 
them  with  a  network  of  idle  conjectures.  Such  diffi- 
culties naturally  occur  in  narratives  so  vague  and 
unchronological  as  those  presented  to  us  in  the  docu- 
ments from  the  story  of  Ehsha  which  the  compiler 
wove  into  his  history  of  Israel  and  Judah.^ 

'  Kittel,  following  Kuenen,  surmises  that  this  story  has  got  mis- 
placed ;  that  it  does  not  belong  to  the  days  of  Jehoram  ben-Ahab  and 
Benhadad  II.,  but  to  the  days  of  Jehoahaz  ben-Jehu  and  Benhadad  III., 
the  son  of  Hazael  {Gesch.  der  Hebr.,  249).  In  a  very  uncertain  ques- 
tion I  have  followed  the  conclusion  arrived  at  by  the  majority  of 
scholars,  ancient  and  modern. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  FAMINE  AND    THE  SIEGE 

2  Kings  vi.  24 — vii,  20 

"Tis  truly  no  good  plan  when  princes  play 
The  vulture  among  carrion ;  but  when 
They  play  the  carrion  among  vultures — that 
Is  ten  times  worse." 

Lessing,  Nathan  the  Wise,  Act  I.,  Sc.  3. 

IF  the  Benhadad,  King  of  Syria,  who  reduced  Samaria 
to  the  horrible  straits  recorded  in  this  chapter, 
(2  Kings  vi.)  was  the  same  Benhadad  whom  Ahab 
had  treated  with  such  impohtic  confidence,  his  hatred 
against  Israel  must  indeed  have  burned  hotly.  Besides 
the  affair  at  Dothan,  he  had  already  been  twice  routed 
with  enormous  slaughter,  and  against  those  disasters 
he  could  only  set  the  death  of  Ahab  at  Ramoth-Gilead. 
It  is  obvious  from  the  preceding  narrative  that  he  could 
advance  at  any  time  at  his  will  and  pleasure  into  the 
heart  of  his  enemy's  country,  and  shut  him  up  in  his 
capital  almost  without  resistance.  The  siege-trains  of 
ancient  days  were  very  inefficient,  and  any  strong 
fortress  could  hold  out  for  years,  if  only  it  was  well 
provisioned.  Such  was  not  the  case  with  Samaria,  and 
it  was  reduced  to  a  condition  of  sore  famine.  Food  so 
loathsome  as  an  ass's  head,  which  at  other  times  the 
poorest  would  have  spurned,  was  now  sold  for  eighty 
shekels'  weight  of  silver  (about  ;^8)  ;  and  the  fourth  part 

76 


vl,  24-vii.  20.]     THE  FAMINE  AND    THE  SIEGE  >j>j 

of  a  xestes  or  kab — which  was  itself  the  smallest  dry- 
measure,  the  sixth  part  of  a  seah — of  the  coarse, 
common  pulse,  or  roasted  chick-peas,  vulgarly  known 
as  "dove's  dung,"  fetched  five  shekels  (about  I2s.  6d.)} 

While  things  were  at  this  awful  pass,  **  the  King  of 
Israel,"  as  he  is  vaguely  called  throughout  this  story, 
went  his  rounds  upon  the  wall  to  visit  the  sentries  and 
encourage  the  soldiers  in  their  defence.  As  he  passed, 
a  woman  cried,  '*  Help,  my  lord,  O  king  !  "  In  Eastern 
monarchies  the  king  is  a  judge  of  the  humblest ;  a 
suppliant,  however  mean,  may  cry  to  him.  Jehoram 
thought  that  this  was  but  one  of  the  appeals  which 
sprang  from  the  clamorous  mendicity  of  famine  with 
which  he  had  grown  so  painfully  familiar.  "  The  Lord 
curse  you  !  "  he  exclaimed  impatiently.^  "  How  can  I 
help  you  ?  Every  barn-floor  is  bare,  every  wine-press 
drained."     And  he  passed  on. 

But  the  woman  continued  her  wild  clamour,  and 
turning  round  at  her  importunity,  he  asked,  **  What 
aileth  thee  ?  " 

He  heard  in  reply  a  narrative  as  appalling  as  ever 
smote  the  ear  of  a  king  in  a  besieged  city.  Among 
the  curses  denounced  upon  apostate  Israel  in  the 
Pentateuch,  we  read,  *'  Ye  shall  eat  the  flesh  of 
your  sons,  and  the  flesh  of  your  daughters  shall  ye 
eat " ;  ^  or,  as  it  is  expressed  more  fully  in  the  Book 

'  So  asafoetida  is  called  "devil's  dung"  in  Germany;  and  the  Herba 
alcali,  "  sparrow's  dung  "  by  Arabs.  The  Qri,  however,  supports  the 
literal  meaning;  and  compare  2  Kings  xviii.  27  ;  Jos.,  B.J.,  V.  xiii.  7. 
Analogies  for  these  prices  are  quoted  from  classic  authors.  Plutarch 
(Artax.,  xxiv.)  mentions  a  siege  in  which  an  ass's  head  could  hardly 
be  got  for  sixty  drachmas  (J^2  los.),  though  usually  the  whole  animal 
only  cost  £1.  Pliny  (H.  N.,  viii.  57)  says  that  during  Hannibal's 
siege  of  Casilinum  a  mouse  sold  for  j{^6  5s. 

^  So  Clericus.     Comp.  Jos.  iir-qpAaaro  ain^.  ^  Lev.  xxvi.  29. 


78  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

of  Deuteronomy,  "  He  shall  besiege  thee  in  all  thy 
gates  throughout  all  thy  land.  .  .  .  And  thou  shalt  eat  the 
fruit  of  thine  own  body,  the  flesh  of  thy  sons  and  thy 
daughters,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  given  thee, 
in  the  siege,  and  in  the  straitness  wherewith  thine 
enemies  shall  distress  thee  :  so  that  the  man  that  is 
tender  among  you,  and  very  delicate,  his  eye  shall  be 
evil  towards  his  brother,  and  towards  the  wife  of  his 
bosom,  and  towards  the  remnant  of  his  children  which 
he  shall  leave ;  so  that  he  shall  not  give  to  any  of  them 
of  the  flesh  of  his  children  whom  he  shall  eat,  because 
he  hath  nothing  left  him  in  the  siege.  .  .  .  The  tender  and 
delicate  woman,  which  would  not  adventure  to  set  the 
sole  of  her  foot  upon  the  ground  for  delicateness  and 
tenderness,  her  eye  shall  be  evil  towards  the  husband 
of  her  bosom,  and  towards  her  son,  and  towards  her 
daughter,  and  towards  her  children  :  for  she  shall  eat 
them  for  want  of  all  things  secretly  in  the  siege  and 
the  straitness,  if  thou  wilt  not  observe  to  do  all  the 
words  of  the  law,  .  .  .  that  thou  mayest  fear  the  glorious 
and  fearful  name,  The  Lord  thy  God."  ^  We  find  almost 
the  same  words  in  the  prophet  Jeremiah ;  ^  and  in 
Lamentations  we  read :  '*  The  hands  of  the  pitiful 
women  have  sodden  their  own  children  :  they  were  their 
meat  in  the  destruction  of  the  daughter  of  My  people."  ^ 
Isaiah  asks,  "  Can  a  woman  forget  her  sucking  child, 
that  she  should  not  have  compassion  on  the  son  of  her 
womb  ?  "  Alas  I  it  has  always  been  so  in  those  awful 
scenes  of  famine,  whether  after  shipwreck  or  in  be- 
leaguered cities,  when  man  becomes  degraded  to  an 
animal,  with  all    an   animal's    primitive  instincts,    and 


'  Deut.  xxviii.  52-58- 

^  Jer,  xix.  9. 

3  Lam.  iv.  loicomp.  ii.  20;  Ezek.  v.  10;  Jos.,  B.J.,  VI.  iii.  4. 


vi.  2]-vii.  20.]     THE  FAMINE  AND    THE  SIEGE  79 


when  the  wild  beast  appears  under  the  thin  veneer  of 
civihsation.  So  it  v/as  at  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  and 
at  the  siege  of  Magdeburg,  and  at  the  wreck  of  the 
Medusa,  and  on  many  another  occasion  when  the  pangs 
of  hunger  have  corroded  away  every  vestige  of  the 
tender  affections  and  of  the  moral  sense. 

And  this  had  occurred  at  Samaria  :  her  women  had 
become  cannibals  and  devoured  their  own  little  ones. 

"  This  woman,"  screamed  the  suppliant,  pointing  her 
lean  finger  at  a  wretch  like  herself — "  this  woman  said 
unto  me,  *  Give  thy  son,  that  we  may  eat  him  to-day, 
and  we  will  afterwards  eat  my  son.'  I  yielded  to  her 
suggestion.  We  killed  my  little  son,  and  ate  his  flesh 
when  we  had  sodden  it.  Next  day  I  said  to  her,  '  Now 
give  thy  son,  that  we  may  eat  him  ' ;  and  she  hath  hid 
her  son  !  " 

How  could  the  king  answer  such  a  horrible  appeal  ? 
Injustice  had  been  done ;  but  was  he  to  order  and  to 
sanction  by  way  of  redress  fresh  cannibalism,  and  the 
murder  by  its  mother  of  another  babe  ?  In  that  foul 
obliteration  of  every  natural  instinct,  what  could  he  do, 
what  could  any  man  do  ?  Can  there  be  equity  among 
raging  wild  beasts,  when  they  roar  for  their  prey  and 
are  unfed  ? 

All  that  the  miserable  king  could  do  was  to  rend  his 
clothes  in  horror  and  to  pass  on,  and  as  his  starving 
subjects  passed  by  him  on  the  wall  they  saw  that  he 
wore  sackcloth  beneath  his  purple,  in  sign,  if  not  of 
repentance,  yet  of  anguish,  if  not  of"  prayer,  yet  of 
uttermost  humiliation.^ 

But  if  indeed  he  had,  in  his  misery,  donned  that 
sackcloth  in  order  that  at  least  the  semblance  of  self- 
mortification   might  move  Jehovah   to  pity,   as  it  had 

'  I  Kings  xxi.  2.7 ;  Isa,  xx.  2,  3. 


8o  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

done  ill  the  case  of  his  father  Ahab,  the  external  sign 
of  his  humihty  had  done  nothing  to  change  his  heart. 
The  gruesome  appeal  to  which  he  had  just  been  forced 
to  listen  only  kindled  him  to  a  burst  of  fury.^  The 
man  who  had  warned,  who  had  prophesied,  who  so  far 
during  this  siege  had  not  raised  his  finger  to  help — 
the  man  who  was  believed  to  be  able  to  wield  the 
powers  of  heaven,  and  had  wrought  no  deliverance  for 
his  people,  but  suffered  them  to  sink  unaided  into  these 
depths  ef  abjectness — should  he  be  permitted  to  live  ? 
If  Jehovah  would  not  help,  of  what  use  was  Elisha  ? 
"  God  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,"  exclaimed  Jehoram 
— using  his  mother's  oath  to  Elijah  ^ — "  if  the  head  of 
Elisha,  the  son  of  Shaphat,  shall  stand  on  him  this 
day." 

Was  this  the  king  who  had  come  to  Elisha  with 
such  humble  entreaty,  when  three  armies  were  perishing 
of  thirst  before  the  eyes  of  Moab  ?  Was  this  the  king 
who  had  called  Elisha  **  my  father,"  when  the  prophet 
had  led  the  deluded  host  of  Syrians  into  Samaria,  and 
bidden  Jehoram  to  set  large  provision  before  them  ? 
It  was  the  same  king,  but  now  transported  with  fury 
and  reduced  to  despair.  His  threat  against  God's 
prophet  was  in  reality  a  defiance  of  God,  as  when  our 
unhappy  Plantagenet,  Henry  II.,  maddened  by  the  loss 
of  Le  Mans,  exclaimed  that,  since  God  had  robbed  him 
of  the  town  he  loved,  he  would  pay  God  out  by  robbing 
Him  of  that  which  He  most  loved  in  him — his  soul. 

Jehoram's  threat  was  meant  in  grim  earnest,  and  he 
sent  an  executioner  to  carry  it  out.  Elisha  was  sitting 
in  his  house  with  the  elders  of  the  city,  who  had  come 

'  Compare  the  wrath  of  Pashur  the  priest  in  consequence  of  the 
denunciation  of  Jeremiah  (Jer.  xx.  2). 
'^  I  Kings  xix.  2, 


vi.  24-vii.  20.]       THE  FAMINE  AND    THE  SIEGE  8i 

to  him  for  counsel  at  this  hour  of  supreme  need.  He 
knew  what  was  intended  for  him,  and  it  had  also 
been  revealed  to  him  that  the  king  would  follow  his 
messenger  to  cancel  his  sanguinary  threat.  "  See  ye," 
he  said  to  the  elders,  "  how  this  son  of  a  murderer  " — 
for  again  he  indicates  his  contempt  and  indignation  for 
the  son  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel — "  hath  sent  to  behead 
me !  When  he  comes,  shut  the  door,  and  hold  it  fast 
against  him.  His  master  is  following  hard  at  his 
heels." 

The  messenger  came,  and  was  refused  admittance. 
The  king  followed  him,^  and  entering  the  room  where 
the  prophet  and  elders  sat,  he  gave  up  his  wicked 
design  of  slaying  Elisha  with  the  sword,  but  he  over- 
whelmed him  with  reproaches,  and  in  despair  renounced 
all  further  trust  in  Jehovah.  Elisha,  as  the  king's 
words  imply,  must  have  refused  all  permission  to 
capitulate  :  he  must  have  held  out  from  the  first  a 
promise  that  God  would  send  deliverance.  But  no 
deliverance  had  come.  The  people  were  starving. 
Women  were  devouring  their  babes.  Nothing  worse 
could  happen  if  they  flung  open  their  gates  to  the 
Syrian  host.  "  Behold,"  the  king  said^  "  this  evil  is 
Jehovah's  doing.  You  have  deceived  us.  Jehovah 
does  not  intend  to  deliver  us.  Why  should  I  wait  for 
Him  any  longer  ?  "  Perhaps  the  king  meant  to  imply 
that  his  mother's  Baal  was  better  worth  serving,  and 
would  never  have  left  his  votaries  to  sink  into  these 
straits. 

And  now  man's  extremity  had  eome,  and  it  was 
God's  opportunity.  Elisha  at  last  was  permitted  to 
announce  that  the  worst  was  over,  that  the  next  day 

'  In  2  Kings  vi.  33  we  should  read  mekk  (king)  for  maleak 
(messenger).     Jehoram  repented  of  his  hasty  order. 

6 


82  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

plenty  should  smile  on  the  besieged  city.  **  Thus  saith 
the  Lord,"  he  exclaimed  to  the  exhausted  and  despondent 
king,  "To-morrow  about  this  time,  instead  of  an  ass's 
head  being  sold  for  eighty  shekels,  and  a  thimbleful 
of  pulse  for  five  shekels,  a  peck  of  fine  flour  shall  be 
sold  for  a  shekel,  and  two  pecks  of  barley  for  a  shekel, 
in  the  gate  of  Samaria." 

The  king  was  leaning  on  the  hand  of  his  chief 
officer,  and  to  this  soldier  the  promise  seemed  not 
only  incredible,  but  silly :  for  at  the  best  he  could 
only  suppose  that  the  Syrian  host  would  raise  the 
siege  ;  and  though  to  hope  for  that  looked  an  absurdity, 
yet  even  that  would  not  in  the  least  fulfil  the  immense 
prediction.  He  answered,  therefore,  in  utter  scorn  : 
"  Yes  !  Jehovah  is  making  windows  in  heaven  1  But 
even  thus  could  this  be  ?  "  It  is  much  as  if  he  should 
have  answered  some  solemn  pledge  with  a  derisive 
proverb  such  as,  "  Yes !  if  the  sky  should  fall,  we 
should  catch  larks  !  " 

Such  contemptuous  repudiation  of  a  Divine  promise 
was  a  blasphemy  ;  and  answering  scorn  with  scorn,  and 
riddle  with  riddling,  Elisha  answers  the  mocker,  "Yes  1 
andjvoM  shall  see  this,  but  shall  not  enjoy  it." 

The  word  of  the  Lord  was  the  word  of  a  true 
prophet,  and  the  miracle  was  wrought.  Not  only  was 
the  siege  raised,  but  the  wholly  unforeseen  spoil  of  the 
entire  Syrian  camp,  with  all  its  accumulated  rapine, 
brought  about  the  predicted  plenty. 

There  were  four  lepers  ^  outside  the  gate  of  Samaria, 
like  the  leprous  mendicants  who  gather  there  to  this 
day.  They  were  cut  off  from  all  human  society,  except 
their  own.  Leprosy  was  treated  as  contagious,  and 
if  "  houses  of  the  unfortunate  "  {Biut-el-Masdkin)  were 

'  The  Jews  say  Gehazi,  and  his  three  sons  (Jarchi). 


vi.  24-vii.  20.]       THE  FAMINE  AND    THE  SIEGE  83 

provided  for  them,  as  seems  to  have  been  the  case  at 
Jerusalem,  they  were  built  outside  the  city  walls.^  They 
could  only  live  by  beggary,  and  this  was  an  aggrava- 
tion of  their  miserable  condition.  And  how  could  any 
one  fling  food  to  these  beggars  over  the  walls,  when 
food  of  any  kind  was  barely  to  be  had  within  them  ? 

So  taking  counsel  of  their  despair,  they  decided  that 
they  would  desert  to  the  Syrians  :  among  them  they 
would  at  least  find  food,  if  their  lives  were  spared  ; 
arid  if  not,  death  would  be  a  happy  release  from  their 
present  misery. 

So  in  the  evening  twilight,  when  they  could  not  be 
seen  or  shot  at  from  the  city  wall  as  deserters,  they 
stole  down  to  the  Syrian  camp. 

When  they  reaehed  its  outermost  circle,  to  their 
amazement  all  was  silence.  They  crept  into  one  of 
the  tents  in  fear  and  astonishment.  There  was  food 
and  drink  there,  and  they  satisfied  the  cravings  of 
their  hunger.  It  was  also  stored  with  booty  from  the 
plundered  cities  and  villages  of  Israel.  To  this  they 
helped  themselves,  and  took  it  away  and  hid  it.  iiaiwig 
spoiled^  this  tent,  they  entered  a  second.  It  was  like- 
wise deserted,  and  they  earned  a  fresh  store  of  trea- 
sures to  their  hidjng-pl^^^^  And  then  thev  began  to 
leel  uneasy  at  not  divulging  to  their  starving  fellow- 
citizens  the  strange  and  golden  tidings  of  a  deserted 
canip„.,_Xhe  night  was  wearing  on  ;  day  would  reveal 
the  secret.  If  they  carried  the  good  news,  they  would 
doubtless  earn  a  rich  guerdon.  If  they  waited  till 
morning,  they  might  be  put  to  death  for  their  selfish 
retjcence  and  thefit.  It  was  safest  to  return  to  the  city, 
and  rouse  the  warder,  and  send  a  message  to  the 
palace.     So  the  lepers  hurried  back  through  the  night, 

'  Lev.  xiii.  46 ;  Num.  v.  2,  3. 


84  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

and  shouted  to  the  sentinel  at  the  gate,  "We  went 
to  the  Syrian  camp,  and  it  was  deserted  I  Not  a  man 
was  there,  not  a  sound  was  to  be  heard.  The  horses 
were  tethered  there,  and  the  asses,  and  the  tents  were 
left  just  as  they  were." 

The  sentinel  called  the  other  watchmen  to  hear  the 
wonderful  news,  and  instantly  ran  with  it  to  the  palace. 
The  slumbering  house  was  roused  ;  and  though  it  was 
still  night,  the  king  himself  arose.  But  he  could  not 
shake  off  his  despondency,  and  made  no  reference  to 
Elisha's  prediction.  News  sometimes  sounds  too  good 
to  be  true.  **  It  is  only  a  decoy,"  he  said.  "  They 
can  only  have  left  their  camp  to  lure  us  into  an 
ambuscade,  that  they  may  return,  and  slaughter  us, 
and  capture  our  city." 

"  Send  to  see,"  answered  one  of  his  courtiers. 
"  Send  five  horsemen  to  test  the  truth,  and  to  look 
out.     If  they  perish,  their  fate  is  but  the  fate  of  us  all." 

So  two  chariots  with  horses  were  despatched,  with 
instructions  not  only  to  visit  the  camp,  but  track  the 
movements  of  the  host. 

They  went,  and  found  that  it  was  as  the  lepers  had 
said.  The  camp  was  deserted,  and  lay  there  as  an 
immense  booty  ;  and  for  some  reason  the  Syrians  had 
fled  towards  the  Jordan  to  make  good  their  escape  to 
Damascus  by  the  eastern  bank.  The  whole  road  was 
strewn  with  the  traces  of  their  headlong  flight ;  it  was 
full  of  scattered  garments  and  vessels. 

Probably,  too,  the  messengers  came  across  some 
disabled  fugitive,  and  learnt  the  secret  of  this  amazing 
stampede.  It  was  the  result  of  one  of  those  sudden 
unaccountable  panics  to  which  the  huge,  unwieldy, 
heterogeneous  Eastern  armies,  which  have  no  organised 
system  of  sentries,  and  no  trained  discipline,  are  con- 


vi.  24-vii.  20.]      THE  FAMINE  AND   THE  SIEGE  85 

stantly  liable.  We  have  already  met  with  several 
instances  in  the  history  of  Israel.  Such  was  the  panic 
which  seized  the  Midianites  when  Gideon's  three 
hundred  blew  their  trumpets ;  and  the  panic  of  the 
Syrians  before  Ahab's  pages  of  the  provinces  ;  and  of 
the  combined  armies  in  the  Valley  of  Salt ;  and  of  the 
Moabites  at  Wady-el-Ahsy ;  and  afterwards  of  the 
Assyrians  before  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  Fear  is 
physically  contagious,  and,  when  once  it  has  set  in, 
it.  swells  with  such  unaccountable  violence,  that  the 
Greeks  called  these  terrors  ''  panic,"  because  they 
believed  them  to  be  directly  inspired  by  the  god  Pan. 
Well-disciplined  as  was  the  army  of  the  Ten  Thousand 
Greeks  in  their  famous  retreat,  they  nearly  fell  victims 
to  a  sudden  panic,  had  not  Clearchus,  with  prompt 
resource,  published  by  the  herald  the  proclamation 
of  a  reward  for  the  arrest  of  the  man  who  had  let 
the  ass  loose.  Such  an  unaccountable  terror — caused 
by  a  noise  as  of  chariots  and  of  horses  which  rever- 
berated among  the  hills — had  seized  the  Syrian  host. 
They  thought  that  Jehoram  had  secretly  hired  an  army 
of  the  princes  of  the  Khetas  ^  and  of  the  Egyptians 
to  march  suddenly  upon  them.  In  wild  confusion,  not 
stopping  to  reason  or  to  inquire,  they  took  to  flight, 
increasing  their  panic  by  the  .noise  and  rush  of  their 
own  precipitance. 

No  sooner  had  the  messengers  delivered  their  glad 
tidings,  than  the  people  of  Samaria  began  to  pour 
tumultuously  out  of  the  gates,  to  fling  themselves  on  the 
food  and  on  the  spoil.  It  was  like  the  rush  of  the  dirty, 
starving,  emaciated  wretches  which  horrified  the  keepers 

'  The  capitals  of  the  ancient  Hittites — a  nation  whose  fame  had 
been  almost  entirely  obliterated  till  a  few  years  ago — were  Karchemish, 
Kadesh,  Hamath,  and  Helbon  (Aleppo). 


86  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

of  the  reserved  stores  at  Smolensk  in  Napoleon's  retreat 
from  Moscow,  and  forced  them  to  shut  the  gates,  and 
fling  food  and  grain  to  the  struggling  soldiers  out  of  the 
windows  of  the  granaries  To  secure  order  and  prevent 
disaster,  the  king  appointed  his  attendant  lord  to  keep 
the  gate.  But  the  torrent  of  people  flung  him  down, 
and  they  trampled  on  his  body  in  their  eagerness  for 
relief  He  died  after  having  seen  that  the  promise 
of  EHsha  was  fulfilled,  and  that  the  cheapness  and 
abundance  had  been  granted,  the  prophecy  of  which  he 
thought  only  fit  for  his  sceptical  derision. 

"The  sudden  panic  which  delivered  the  city,"  says 
Dean  Stanley,  "  is  the  one  marked  intervention  on 
behalf  of  the  northern  capital.  No  other  incident  could 
be  found  in  the  sacred  annals  so  appropriately  to 
express,  in  the  Church  of  Gouda,  the  pious  gratitude 
of  the  citizens  of  Leyden,  for  their  deliverance  from  the 
Spanish  army,  as  the  miraculous  raising  of  the  siege  of 
Samaria."^ 

'  Lectures,  ii.  345. 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  SHUNAMMITE  AND  HAZAEL 

2  Kings  viii.  i — 6,  7 — 15.     (Circ,  b.c.  886.) 

"Our  acts  still  follow  with  us  from  afar, 
And  what  we  have  been  makes  us  what  we  are." 

George  Eliot. 

THE  next  anecdote  of  Elisha  brings  us  once 
more  into  contact  with  the  Lady  of  Shunem. 
Famines,  or  dearths,  were  unhappily  of  very  frequent 
occurrence  in  a  country  which  is  so  wholly  dependent, 
as  Palestine  is,  upon  the  early  and  latter  rain.  On 
some  former  occasion  Elisha  had  foreseen  that  "  Jehovah 
had  called  for  a  famine " ;  for  the  sword,  the  famine, 
and  the  pestilence  are  represented  as  ministers  who 
wait  His  bidding.^  He  had  also  foreseen  that  it  would 
be  of  long  duration,  and  in  kindness  to  the  Shunam- 
mite  had  warned  her  that  she  had  better  remove  for  a 
time  into  a  land  in  which  there  was  greater  plenty.  It 
was  under  similar  circumstances  that  Elimelech  and 
Naomi,  ancestors  of  David's  line,  had  taken  their  sons 
Mahlon  and  Chilion,  and  gone  to  live  in  the  land  of 
Moab;  and,  indeed,  the  famine  which  decided  the 
migration  of  Jacob  and  his  children  into  Egypt  had 
been  a  turning-point  in  the  history  of  the  Chosen 
People. 

'  Jar.  XXV.  29;  Ezek,  xxxviii.  21. 
87 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


The  Lady  of  Shunem  had  learnt  by  experience  the 
weight  of  EHsha's  words.  Her  husband  is  not  men- 
tioned, and  was  probably  dead  ;  so  she  arose  with  her 
household,  and  went  for  seven  years  to  live  in  the 
plain  of  Philistia.  At  the  end  of  that  time  the  dearth 
had  ceased,  and  she  returned  to  Shunem,  but  only  to 
find  that  during  her  absence  her  house  and  land  were 
in  possession  of  other  owners,  and  had  probably 
escheated  to  the  Grown.  The  king  was  the  ultimate, 
and  to  a  great  extent  the  only,  source  of  justice  in  his 
little  kingdom,  and  she  went  to  lay  her  claim  before 
him  and  demand  the  restitution  of  her  property.  By 
a  providential  circumstance  she  came  exactly  at  the 
most  favourable  moment.  The  king — it  must  have 
been  Jehoram — was  at  the  very  time  talking  to  Gehazi 
about  the  great  works  of  Elisha.  As  it  is  unlikely  that 
he  would  converse  long  with  a  leper,  and  as  Gehazi 
is  still  called  "the  servant  of  the  man  of  God,"  the 
incident  may  here  be  narrated  out  of  order.  It  is 
pleasant  to  find  Jehoram  taking  so  deep  an  interest 
in  the  prophet's  story.  Already  on  many  occasions 
during  his  wars  with  Moab  and  Syria,  as  well  as  on 
the  occasion  of  Naaman's  visit,  if  that  had  already 
occurred,  he  had  received  the  completest  proof  of  the 
reality  of  Elisha's  mission,  but  he  might  be  naturally 
unaware  of  the  many  private  incidents  in  which  he  had 
exhibited  a  supernatural  power.  Among  other  stories 
Gehazi  was  telling  him  that  of  the  Shunammite,  and  how 
Elisha  htid  given  life  to  her  dead  son.  At  that  juncture 
she  came  before  the  king,  and  Gehazi  said,  "  My  lord, 
O  king,  this  is  the  very  woman,  and  this  is  her  son 
whom  -ha  recalled  to  life."  In  answer  to  Jehoram's 
questions  she  confirmed  the  story,  and  he  was  so  much 
impressed  by  the  narrative  that  he  not  only  ordered 


viii.  1-6,  7-15.]      THE  SHUNAMMITE  AND  HAZAEL  89 

the  immediate  restitution  of  her  land,  but  also  of  the 
value  of  its  products  during  the  seven  years  of  her  exile. 

We  now  come  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  second  of  the 
commands  which  Elijah  had  received  so  long  before 
at  Horeb.  To  complete  the  retribution  which  was  yet 
to  fall  on  Israel,  he  had  been  bidden  to  anoint  Hazael 
to  be  king  of  Syria  in  the  room  of  Benhadad.  Hitherto 
the  mandate  had  remained  unfulfilled,  because  no  oppor- 
tunity had  occurred ;  but  the  appointed  time  had  now 
arrived.  Elisha,  for  some  purpose,  and  during  an 
interval  of  peace,  visited  Damascus,  where  the  visit 
of  Naaman  and  the  events  of  the  Syrian  wars  had 
made  his  name  very  famous.  Benhadad  II.,  grandson 
or  great-grandson  of  Rezin,  after  a  stormy  reign  of 
some  thirty  years,  marked  by  some  successes,  but  also 
by  the  terrible  reverses  already  recorded,  lay  danger- 
ously ill.  Hearing  the  news  that  the  wonder-working 
prophet  of  Israel  was  in  his  capital,  he  sent  to  ask 
of  him  the  question,  "  Shall  I  recover  ?  "  It  had  been 
the  custom  from  the  earliest  days  to  propitiate  the 
favour  of  prophets  by  presents,  without  which  even  the 
humblest  suppliant  hardly  ventured  to  approach  them.^ 
The  gift  sent  by  Benhadad  was  truly  royal,  for  he 
thought  perhaps  that  he  could  purchase  the  intercession 
or  the  miraculous  intervention  of  this  mighty  thauma- 
turge. He  sent  Hazael  with  a  selection  "  of  every  good 
thing  of  Damascus,"  and,  like  an  Eastern,  he  endea- 
voured to  make  his  offering  seem  more  magnificent  ^  by 
distributing  it  on  the  backs  of  forty  camels. 

At  the  head   of  this  imposing  procession  of  camels 

'  See  the  cases  of  Samuel  (i  Sam.  ix.  7),  of  Ahijah  (i  Kings  xiv.  3), 
and  of  Elisha  himself  (2  Kings  iv.  42). 

-  As  Jacob  did  in  sending  forward  his  present  to  Esau.  Comp. 
Chardin,   Voyages,  iii.  217. 


90  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

walked  Hazael,  the  commander  of  the  forces,  and  stood 
in  Elisha's  presence  with  the  humble  appeal,  "  Thy  son 
Benhadad,  King  of  Syria,  hath  sent  me  to  thee,  saying, 
Shall  I  recover  of  this  disease  ?  " 

About  the  king's  munificence  we  are  told  no  more, 
but  we  cannot  doubt  that  it  was  refused.  If  Naaman's 
still  costlier  blessing  had  been  rejected,  though  he  was 
about  to  receive  through  Elisha's  ministration  an  in- 
estimable boon,  it  is  unlikely  that  Elisha  would  accept 
a  gift  for  which  he  could  offer  no  return,  and  which, 
in  fact,  directly  or  indirectly,  involved  the  death  of 
the  sender.  But  the  historian  does  not  think  it  neces- 
sary to  pause  and  tell  us  that  Elisha  sent  back  the 
forty  camels  unladen  of  their  treasures.  It  was  not 
worth  while  to  narrate  what  was  a  matter  of  course. 
If  it  had  been  no  time,  a  few  years  earlier,  to  receive 
money  and  garments,  and  olive-yards  and  vineyards,  and 
men-servants  and  maid-servants,  still  less  was  it  a  time 
to  do  so  now.  The  days  were  darker  now  than  they 
had  been,  and  Elisha  himself  stood  near  the  Great  White 
Throne.  The  protection  of  these  fearless  prophets  lay 
in  their  utter  simplicity  of  soul.  They  rose  above 
human  fears  because  they  stood  above  human  desires. 
What  Elisha  possessed  was  more  than  sufficient  for  the 
needs  of  the  plain  and  humble  life  of  one  whose  com- 
muning was  with  God.  It  was  not  wonderful  that 
prophets  should  rise  to  an  elevation  whence  they  could 
look  down  with  indifference  upon  the  superfluities  of 
the  lust  of  the  eyes  and  the  pride  of  life,  when  even 
sages  of  the  heathen  have  attained  to  a  similar  inde- 
pendence of  earthly  luxuries.  One  who  can  chmb  such 
mountain-heights  can  look  with  silent  contempt  on 
gold. 

But  there  is  a  serious  difficulty  about  Elisha's  answer 


viii.  1-6,  7-15.]      THE  SHUNAMMITE  AND  HAZAEL  91 

to  the  embassage.  "  Go,  say  unto  him  " — so  it  is 
rendered  in  our  Authorised  Version — **Thou  mayest 
certainly  recover :  howbeit  the  Lord  hath  showed  me 
that  he  shall  surely  die." 

It  is  evident  that  the  translators  of  161 1  meant  the 
emphasis  to  be  laid  on  the '^^ mayest"  and  understood 
the  answer  of  Elisha  to  mean,  "  Thy  recovery  is  quite 
possible ;  and  yet " — he  adds  to  Hazael,  and  not  as 
part  of  his  answer  to  the  king — "Jehovah  has  shown 
me  that  dying  he  shall  die," — not  indeed  of  this  disease, 
but  by  other  means  before  he  has  recovered  from  it. 

Unfortunately,  however,  the  Hebrew  will  not  bear 
this  meaning.  Elisha  bids  Hazael  to  go  back  with  the 
distinct  message,  "Thou  shalt  surely  recover,"  as  it  is 
rightly  rendered  in  the  Revised  Version. 

This,  however,  is  the  rendering,  not  of  the  ivritten 
text  as  it  stands,  but  of  the  margin.  Every  one  knows 
that  in  the  Masoretic  original  the  text  itself  is  called 
the  K'thib,  or  "  what  is  written,"  whereas  the  margin 
is  called  Q^ri,  "  read."  Now,  our  translators,  both  those 
of  161 1  and  those  of  the  Revision  Committee,  all  but 
invariably  follow  the  Kethib  as  the  most  authentic 
reading.  In  this  instance,  however,  they  abandon  the 
rule  and  translate  the  marginal  reading. 
What,  then,  is  the  written  text  ? 
It  is  the  reverse  of  the  marginal  reading,  for  it  has  : 
"Go,  say,  Thou  shalt  not  recover." 

The    reader   may  naturally   ask    the    cause    of  this 
startling  discrepancy. 
It  seems  to  be  twofold. 

(I.)  Both  the  Hebrew  word  /o,  "not"  (xb),  and  the 
word  /o,  "  to  him "  (i'p),  have  precisely  the  same  pro- 
nunciation. Hence  this  text  might  mean  either  "  Go, 
say  to   hinif  Thou   shalt   certainly   recover,"   or  "Go, 


92  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

say,  Thou  shalt  not  recover."  The  same  identity  of  the 
negative  and  the  dative  of  the  preposition  has  made 
nonsense  of  another  passage  of  the  Authorised  Version, 
where  "Thou  hast  multipHed  the  nation,  and  not  in- 
creased the  joy  :  they  joy  before  Thee  according  to 
the  joy  of  harvest,"  should  be  "  Thou  hast  multiplied 
the  nation,  and  increased  its  joy."  So,  too,  the  verse 
*'  It  is  He  that  hath  made  us,  and  not  we  ourselves," 
may  mean  "  It  is  He  that  hath  made  us,  and  to  Him 
we  belong."  In  the  present  case  the  adoption  of  the 
negative  (which  would  have  conveyed  to  Benhadad  the 
exact  truth)  is  not  possible ;  for  it  makes  the  next 
clause  and  its  introduction  by  the  word  **Howbeit" 
entirely  meaningless. 

But  (II.)  this  confusion  in  the  text  might  not  have 
arisen  in  the  present  instance  but  for  the  difficulty  of 
Elisha's  appearing  to  send  a  deliberately  false  message 
to  Benhadad,  and  a  message  which  he  tells  Hazael  at 
the  time  is  false. 

Can  this  be  deemed  impossible  ? 

With  the  views  prevalent  in  "those  times  of  igno- 
rance," I  think  not.  Abraham  and  Isaac,  saints  and 
patriarchs  as  they  were,  both  told  practical  falsehoods 
about  their  wives.  They,  indeed,  were  reproved  for 
this,  though  not  severely ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  Jael 
is  not  reproved  for  her  treachery  to  Sisera ;  and  Samuel, 
under  the  semblance  of  a  Divine  permission,  used  a 
diplomatic  ruse  when  he  visited  the  household  of  Jesse  ; 
and  in  the  apologue  of  Micaiah  a  lying  spirit  is  repre- 
sented as  sent  forth  to  do  service  to  Jehovah;  and 
Elisha  himself  tells  a  deliberate  falsehood  to  the  Syrians 
at  Dothan.  The  sensitiveness  to  the  duty  of  always 
speaking  the  exact  truth  is  not  felt  in  the  East  with 
anything  like  the  intensity  that  it  is  in  Christian  lands  ; 


viii.  1-6,  7-IS-]      THE  SHUNAMMITE  AND  HAZAEL  93 

and  reluctant  as  we  should  be  to  find  in  the  message 
of  Elisha  another  instance  of  that  falsitas  dispensativa 
which  has  been  so  fatally  patronised  by  some  of 
the  Fathers  and  by  many  Romish  theologians,  the 
love  of  truth  itself  would  compel  us  to  accept  this 
view  of  the  case,  if  there  were  no  other  possible  inter- 
pretation. 

I  think,  however,  that  another  view  is  possible.  I 
think  that  Elisha  may  have  said  to  Hazael,  "  Go,  say 
unto  him.  Thou  shalt  surely  recover,"  with  the  same 
accent  of  irony  in  which  Micaiah  said  at  first  to  the 
two  kings,  "  Go  up  to  Ramoth-Gilead,  and  prosper ;  for 
the  Lord  shall  deliver  it  into  the  hand  of  the  king."  I 
think  that  his  whole  manner  and  the  tone  of  his  voice 
may  have  shown  to  Hazael,  and  may  have  been  meant 
to  show  him,  that  this  was  not  Elisha's  real  message 
to  Benhadad.  Or,  to  adopt  the  same  line  of  explana- 
tion with  an  unimportant  difference,  Elisha  may  have 
meant  to  imply,  "  Go,  follow  the  bent  which  I  know  you 
will  follow ;  go,  ^arry  back  to  your  master  the  lying 
message  that  I  said  he  would  recover.  But  that  is 
not  my  message.  My  message,  whether  it  suits  your 
courtier  instincts  or  not,  is  that  Jehovah  has  warned 
me  that  he  shall  surely  die." 

That  some  such  meaning  as  this  attaches  to  the 
verse  seems  to  be  shown  by  the  context.  For  not  only 
was  some  reproof  involved  in  Elisha's  words,  but  he 
showed  his  grief  still  more  by  his  manner.  It  was  as 
though  he  had  said,  "Take  back  what  message  you 
choose,  but  Benhadad  will  certainly  die  "  ;  and  then 
he  fastened  his  steady  gaze  on  the  soldier's  counte- 
nance, till  Hazael  blushed  and  became  uneasy.  Only 
when  he  noted  that  Hazael 's  conscience  was  troubled 
by  the  glittering  eyes  which  seemed  to  read  the  inmost 


94  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

secrets  of  his  heart  did  Elisha  drop  his  glance,  and 
burst  into  tears.  "  Why  weepeth,  my  lord  ?  "  asked 
Hazael,  in  still  deeper  uneasiness.  Whereupon  Elisha 
revealed  to  him  the  future.  "  I  weep,"  he  said,  "  because 
I  see  in  thee  the  curse  and  the  avenger  of  the  sins  of 
my  native  land.  Thou  wilt  become  to  them  a  sword 
of  God  ;  thou  wilt  set  their  fortresses  on  fire  ;  thou 
wilt  slaughter  their  youths ;  thou  wilt  dash  their  little 
ones  to  pieces  against  the  stones  ;  thou  wilt  rip  up  their 
women  with  child."  That  he  actually  inflicted  these 
savageries  of  warfare  on  the  miserable  Israelites  we 
are  not  told,  but  we  are  told  that  he  smote  them  in 
all  their  coasts ;  that  Jehovah  delivered  them  into 
his  hands  ;  that  he  oppressed  Israel  all  the  days  of 
Jehoahaz.-^  That  being  so,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  he  carried  out  the  same  laws  of  atrocious  warfare 
which  belonged  to  those  times  and  continued  long 
afterwards.  Such  atrocities  were  not  only  inflicted  on 
the  Israelites  again  and  again  by  the  Assyrians  and 
others,^  but  they  themselves  had  often  inflicted  them, 
and  inflicted  them  with  what  they  believed  to  be  Divine 
approval,  on  their  own  enemies.^  Centuries  after,  one 
of  their  own  poets  accounted  it  a  beatitude  to  him  who 
should  dash  the  children  of  the  Babylonians  against  the 
stones.* 

As  the  answer  of  Hazael  is  usually  read  and  inter- 
preted, we  are  taught  to  regard  it  as  an  indignant 
declaration  that  he  could  never  be  guilty  of  such  vile 
deeds.  It  is  regarded  as  though  it  were  "  an  abhorrent 
repudiation  of  his  future  self"     The  lesson  often  drawn 

'  2  Kings  X.  32,  xiii.  3,  22. 

^  Isa,  xiii.  15,  16;  Hos.  x.  14,  xiii.  10;  Nah.  iii.  10. 

'  See  Josh.  vi.  17,  21  ;  I  Sam,  xv.  3 ;  Lev.  xxvii,  28,  29. 

*  Psalm  cxxxvii.  9. 


viii,  1-6,  7-15.]      THE  SHUNAMMITE  AND  HAZAEL  9.5 

fFom  it  in  sermons  is  that  a  man  may  live  to  do,  and 
to  delight  in,  crimes  which  he  once  hated  and  deemed 
it  impossible  that  he  should  ever  commit. 

The  lesson  is  a  most  true  one,  and  is  capable  of 
a  thousand  illustrations.  It  conveys  the  deeply  needed 
warning  that  those  who,  even  in  thought,  dabble  with 
wrong  courses,  which  they  qnly  regard  as  venial  pecca- 
dilloes, may  live  to  commit,  without  any  sense  of  horror, 
the  most  enormous  offences.  It  is  the  explanation  of 
the  terrible  fact  that  youths  who  once  seemed  innocent 
and  holy-minded  may  grow  up,  step  by  step,  into 
colossal  criminals.  "  Men,"  says  Scherer,  "  advance 
unconsciously  from  errors  to  faults,  and  from  faults 
to  crimes,  till  sensibility  is  destroyed  by  the  habitual 
spectacle  of  guilt,  and  the  most  savage  atrocities  come 
to  be  dignified  by  the  name  of  State  policy." 

"  Lui-meme  a  son    portrait  force  de  rendre  hommage, 
II  fremira  d'horreur  devant  sa  propre  image." 

But  true  and  needful  as  these  lessons  are,  they  are 
entirely  beside  the  mark  as  deduced  from  the  story 
of  Hazael.  What  he  said  was  not,  as  in  our  Authorised 
Version,  "  But  what,  is  thy  servant  a  dog,  that  he 
should  do  this  great  thing  ?  "  nor  by  "  great  thing  "  does 
he  mean  "so  deadly  a  crime."  His  words,  more 
accurately  rendered  in  our  Revision,  are,  **  But  what 
is  thy  servant,  which  is  but  a  dog,  that  he  should  do 
this  great  thing  ? "  or,  "  But  what  is  the  dog,  thy 
servant  ? "  It  was  a  hypocritic  deprecation  of  the 
future  importance  and  eminence  which  Elisha  had  pro- 
phesied for  him.  There  is  not  the  least  sense  of  horror 
either  in  his  words  or  in  his  thoughts.  He  merely 
means  "A  mere  dog,  such  as  I  am,  can  never  accom- 
plish such  great  designs."     A  dog  in  the  East  is  utterly 


96  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

despised  ;  ^  and  Hazael,  with  Oriental  irony,  calls  himself 
a  dog,  though  he  was  the  Syrian  commander-in-chief — 
just  as  a  Chinaman,  in  speaking  of  himself,  adopts  the 
periphrasis  "  this  little  thief." 

Elisha  did  not  notice  his  sham  humility,  but  told  him, 
"  The  Lord  hath  showed  me  that  thou  shalt  be  King 
over  Syria."     The  date  of  the  event  was  b.c.  886. 

The  scene  has  sometimes  been  misrepresented  to 
Elisha's  discredit,  as  though  he  suggested  to  the  general 
the  crimes  of  murder  and  rebellion.  The  accusation 
is  entirely  untenable.  Elisha  was,  indeed,  in  one  sense, 
commissioned  to  anoint  Hazael  King  of  Syria,  because 
the  cruel  soldier  had  been  predestined  by  God  to  that 
position ;  but,  in  another  sense,  he  had  no  power 
whatever  to  give  to  Hazael  the  mighty  kingdom  of 
Aram,  nor  to  wrest  it  from  the  dynasty  which  had  now 
held  it  for  many  generations.  All  this  was  brought 
about,  by  the  Divine  purpose,  in  a  course  of  events 
entirely  out  of  the  sphere  of  the  humble  man  of  God. 
In  the  transferring  of  this  crown  he  was  in  no  sense 
the  agent  or  the  suggester.  The  thought  of  usurpa- 
tion must,  without  doubt,  have  been  already  in  Hazael's 
mind.  Benhadad,  as  far  as  we  know,  was  childless. 
At  any  rate  he  had  no  natural  heirs,  and  seems  to 
have  been  a  drunken  king,  whose  reckless  undertakings 
and  immense  failures  had  so  completely  alienated  the 
affections  of  his  subjects  from  himself  and  his  dynasty, 
that  he  died  undesired  and  unlamented,  and  no  hand 
was  uplifted  to  strike  a  blow  in  his  defence.  It  hardly 
needed  a  prophet  to  foresee  that  the  sceptre  would 
be  snatched  by  so  strong  a  hand  as  that  of  Hazael  from 
a  grasp  so  feeble  as  that  of  Benhadad  II.  The  utmost 
that  Elisha  had  done  was,  under  Divine  guidance,  to 

'  I  Sam.  xxiv.  14 ;  2  Sam.  ix.  8. 


viii.  1-6,  7-15-]      THE  SHUNAMMITE  AND  HAZAEL  97 


read  his  character  and  his  designs,  and  to  tell  him  that 
the  accomplishment  of  these  designs  was  near  at  hand. 

So  Hazael  went  back  to  Benhadad,  and  in  answer  to 
the  eager  inquiry,  "What  said  Elisha  to  thee  ?  "  he 
gave  the  answer  which  Elisha  had  foreseen  that  he 
meant  to  give,  and  which  was  in  any  case  a  falsehood, 
for  it  suppressed  half  of  what  Elisha  had  really  said. 
"  He  told  me,"  said  Hazael,  "that  thou  shouldest  surely 
recover." 

Was  the  sequel  of  the  interview  the  murder  of 
Benhadad  by  Hazael  ? 

The  story  has  usually  been  so  read,  but  Elisha  had 
neither  prophesied  this  nor  suggested  it.  The  sequel 
is  thus  described.  **  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  morrow, 
that  he  took  the  coverlet,^  and  dipped  it  in  water,  and 
spread  it  on  his  face,  so  that  he  died  :  and  Hazael  reigned 
in  his  stead."  The  repetition  of  the  name  Hazael  in 
the  last  clause  is  superfluous  if  he  was  the  subject 
of  the  previous  clause,  and  it  has  been  consequently 
conjectured  that  "  he  took  "  is  merely  the  impersonal 
idiom  "  one  took."  Some  suppose  that,  as  Benhadad 
was  in  the  bath,  his  servant  took  the  bath-cloth,  wetted 
it,  and  laid  its  thick  folds  over  the  mouth  of  the  helpless 
king  ;  others,  that  he  soaked  the  thick  quilt,  which  the 
king  was  too  weak  to  lift  away.^  In  either  case  it  is 
hardly  likely   that  a   great  officer  like    Hazael  would 

'  "I33P.  Jos.,  Antt.,  IX.  iv.  6,  SIktvov  Sid^poxov.  Aquila,  Sym- 
machus,  t6  ffrpQ/xa.  Michaelis  supposed  it  to  be  the  moequito-net 
(/cwj'WTreZoJ').  Comp.  I  Sam.  xix.  13.  Ewald  suggested  "  bath- 
mattress  "  (iii.  523).  Sir  G.  Grove  {s.v.  "Elisha,"  BM.  Diet.,  ii.  923) 
mentions  that  Abbas  Pasha  is  said  to  have  been  murdered  in  the  same 
manner.  Some,  however,  think  that  the  measure  was  taken  by  way  of 
cure  (Bruce,  Travels,  iii.  33.  Klostermann,  ad  he,  alters  the  text  at 
his  pleasure). 

'^  2  Kings  viii.  15;  UXX^rb  jxax^ap;  Vu\g.,  siragu/uw;  lit.,  "woven 
cloth." 

7 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


have  been  in  the  bath-room  or  the  bed-room  of  the 
dying  king.  Yet  we  must  remember  that  the  Praetorian 
Prasfect  Macro  is  said  to  have  suffocated  Tiberius 
with  his  bed-clothes.  Josephus  says  that  Hazael 
strangled  his  master  with  a  net ;  and,  indeed,  he  has 
generally  been  held  guilty  of  the  perpetration  of  the 
murder.  But  it  is  fair  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt.  Be  that  as  it  may,  he  seems  to  have  reigned 
for  some  forty-six  years  (b.c.  8 86-840),  and  to  have 
bequeathed  the  sceptre  to  a  son  on  whom  he  had 
bestowed  the  old  dynastic  name  of  Benhadad. 


CHAPTER    X 

(I)  JEHORAM  BEN-JEHOSHAPHAT  OF  JUDAH 
B.C.  851—843 

(2)  AHAZIAH  BEN-JEHORAM  OF  JUDAH 

B.C.  843 — 842 

2  Kings  viii.  16—24,  ^S — 29 
"  Bear  like  the  Turk,  no  brother  near  the  throne." — Pope. 

THE  narrative  now  reverts  to  the  kingdom  of 
Judah,  of  which  the  historian,  mainly  occupied 
with  the  great  deeds  of  the  prophet  in  Israel,  takes 
at  this  period  but  little  notice. 

He  tells  us  that  in  the  fifth  year  of  Jehoram  of  Israel, 
son  of  Ahab,  his  namesake  and  brother-in-law,  Jehoram 
of  Judah,  began  to  reign  in  Judah,  though  his  father, 
Jehoshaphat,  was  then  king.^ 

The  statement  is  full  of  difficulties,  especially  as 
we  have  been  already  told  (i.  17)  that  Jehoram  ben- 
Ahab  of  Israel  began  to  reign  in  the  second  year  of 

'  The  following  genealogy  may  help  to  elucidate  the  troublesome 
identity  of  names : — 

Omri 

I ' 1  Jehoshaphat 

Ahab  =j=  Jezebel  I 

I , ,  ' 


Ahaziah  Jehoram  Athaliah=pJehoram 

(of  Israel).  (of  Israel).  |  (of  Judah). 


Ahaziah 
(of  Judah 


99 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Jehoram  ben-Jehoshaphat  of  Judah,  and  (iii.  i)  in 
the  eighteenth  year  of  Jehoshaphat.  It  is  hardly 
worth  while  to  pause  here  to  disentangle  these  com- 
plexities in  a  writer  who,  like  most  Eastern  historians, 
is  content  with  loose  chronological  references.  By 
the  current  mode  of  reckoning,  the  twenty-five  years 
of  Jehoshaphat's  reign  may  merely  mean  twenty-three 
and  a  month  or  two  of  two  other  years  ;  and  some 
suppose  that,  when  Jehoram  of  Judah  was  about  sixteen, 
his  father  went  on  the  expedition  against  Moab,  and 
associated  his  son  with  him  in  the  throne.  This  is 
only  conjecture.  Jehoshaphat,  of  all  kings,  least  needed 
a  coadjutor,  particularly  so  weak  and  worthless  a  one 
as  his  son  ;  and  though  the  association  of  colleagues 
with  themselves  has  been  common  in  some  realms, 
there  is  not  a  single  instance  of  it  in  the  history  of 
Israel  and  Judah — the  case  of  Uzziah,  who  was  a  leper, 
not  being  to  the  point. ^ 

The  kings  both  of  Israel  and  of  Judah  at  this 
period,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  brave  and 
good  Jehoshaphat,  were  unworthy  and  miserable.  The 
blight  of  the  Jezebel-marriage  and  the  curse  of  Baal- 
worship  lay  upon  both  kingdoms.  It  is  scarcely 
possible  to  find  such  wretched  monarchs  as  the  two 
sons  of  Jezebel — Ahaziah  and  Jehoram  in  Israel,  and 
the  son-in-law  and  grandson  of  Jezebel,  Jehoram  and 
Ahaziah,  in  Judah.  Their  respective  reigns  are  annals 
of  shameful  apostasy,  and  almost  unbroken  disaster. 

Jehoram  ben-Jehoshaphat  of  Judah  was  thirty-two 
years  old  when  he  began  his  independent  reign,  and 
reigned  for  eight  deplorable  years.  The  fact  that  his 
mother's    name    is    (exceptionally)    omitted    seems    to 

'  Jotham  ben-Uzziah  was  not  the  colleague  of  his  father,  but  his 
public  representative. 


viii.  16-24.]       JEHORAM  BEN-JEHOSHAPHAT 


imply  that  his  father  Jehoshaphat  set  the  good  example 
of  monogamy.^  Jehoram  was  wholly  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Athahah,  his  wife,  and  of  Jezebel,  his  mother- 
in-law,  and  he  introduced  into  Judah  their  alien 
abominations.  He  "  walked  in  their  way,  and  did  evil 
in  the  sight  of  the  Lord."  The  Chronicler  fills  up 
the  general  remark  by  saying  that  he  did  his  utmost 
to  foster  idolatry  by  erecting  banioth  in  the  mountains 
of  Judah,  and  compelled  his  people  to  worship  there, 
in  order  to  decentralise  the  religious  services  of  the 
kingdom,  and  so  to  diminish  the  glory  of  the  Temple. 
He  introduced  Baal-worship  into  Judah,  and  either 
he  or  his  son  was  the  guilty  builder  of  a  temple  to 
Baalim,  not  only  on  the  "  opprobrious  mount "  on 
which  stood  the  idolatrous  chapels  of  Solomon,  but  on 
the  Hill  of  the  House  itself  This  temple  had  its  own 
high  priest,  and  was  actually  adorned  with  treasures 
torn  from  the  Temple  of  Jehovah."-^  So  bad  was 
Jehoram's  conduct  that  the  historian  can  only  attribute 
his  non-destruction  to  the  "  covenant  of  salt "  which 
God  had  made  with  David,  "  to  give  him  a  lamp  for 
his  children  always." 

But  if  actual  destruction  did  not  come  upon  him  and 
his  race,  he  came  very  near  such  a  fate,  and  he 
certainly  experienced  that  "the  path  of  transgressors 
is  hard."  There  is  nothing  to  record  about  him  but 
crime  and  catastrophe.  First  Edom  revolted.  Jehosha- 
phat had  subdued  the  Edomites,  and  only  allowed  them 
to  be  governed  by  a  vassal ;  now  they  threw  off  the 
yoke.      The  Jewish  King   advanced   against   them  to 

'  The  only  other  king  of  Judah  whose  mother's  name  is  not 
mentioned  (perhaps  because  his  father  Jotham  had  but  one  wife) 
is  Ahaz. 

^  2  Kings  xi.  l8  ;  2  Chron.  xxi.  ii,  xxiv.  7. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


"  Zair " — by  which  must  be  meant  apparently  either 
Zoar  (through  which  the  road  to  Edom  lay),  or  their 
capital,  Mount  Seir.^  There  he  was  surrounded  by  the 
Edomite  hosts;  and  though  by  a  desperate  act  of  valour 
he  cut  his  way  through  them  at  night  in  spite  of  their 
reserve  of  chariots,  yet  his  army  left  him  in  the  lurch. 
Edom  succeeded  in  establishing  its  final  independence, 
to  which  we  see  an  allusion  in  the  one  hope  held  out 
to  Esau  by  Isaac  in  that  **  blessing  "  which  was  practi- 
cally a  curse. 

The  loss  of  so  powerful  a  subject-territory,  which 
now  constituted  a  source  of  danger  on  the  eastern 
frontier  of  Judah,  was  succeeded  by  another  disaster 
on  the  south-west,  in  the  Shephelah  or  lowland  plain. 
Here  Libnah  revolted,^  and  by  gaining  its  autonomy 
contracted  yet  farther  the  narrow  limits  of  the  southern 
kingdom. 

The  Book  of  Kings  tells  us  no  more  about  the  Jewish 
Jehoram,  only  adding  that  he  died  and  was  buried  with 
his  fathers,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Ahaziah. 
But  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  which  adds  far  darker 
touches  to  his  character,  also  heightens  to  an  extra- 
ordinary degree  the  intensity  of  his  punishment.  It  tells 
us  that  he  began  his  reign  by  the  atrocious  murder 
of  his  six  younger  brothers,  for  whom,  following  the 
old  precedent  of  Rehoboam,  Jehoshaphat  had  provided 

'  Vulg.,  Seira  ;  Arab.,  SaVr  (but  the  historian  never  uses  the  name 
Mount  Seir)  ;  LXX.,  Stwp.  There  is  perhaps  some  corruption  in  the 
text,  and  the  reading  of  the  Chronicler  "with  his  princes"  shows 
that  it  may  have  once  been  VIK^'Dl?. 

^  2  Kings  viii.  21.  "The  people"  (i.e.,  the  army  of  Judah)  "fled 
to  their  tents."  Apparently  this  means  that  they  slunk  away  home. 
The  word  "tents"  is  a  reminiscence  of  their  nomad  days,  like  the 
treasonable  cry,  "To  your  tents,  O  Israel." 

'  Josh.  X.  29-39. 


viii.  25-29.]  AHAZIAH  BEN-JEHORAM  103 

by  establishing  them  as  governors  of  various  cities.  As 
his  throne  was  secure,  we  cannot  imagine  any  motive 
for  this  brutal  massacre  except  the  greed  of  gain,  and 
we  can  only  suppose  that,  as  Jehoram  ben-Jehoshaphat 
became  little  more  than  a  friendly  vassal  of  his  kinsmen 
in  Israel,  so  he  fell  under  the  deadly  influence  of  his 
wife  Athaliah,  as  completely,  as  his  father-in-law  had 
done  under  the  spell  of  her  mother  Jezebel.  With  his 
brothers  he  also  swept  away  a  number  of  the  chief 
nobles,  who  perhaps  embraced  the  cause  of  his  murdered 
kinsmen.  Such  conduct  breathes  the  known  spirit  of 
J-ezebel  and  of  Athaliah.  To  rebuke  him  for  this 
wickedness,  he  received  the  menace  of  a  tremendous 
judgment  upon  his  home  and  people  in  a  writing  from 
Elijah,  whom  we  should  certainly  have  assumed  to 
be  dead  long  before  that  time.  The  judgment  itself 
followed.  The  Philistines  and  Arabians  invaded  Judah, 
captured  Jerusalem,  and  murdered  all  Jehoram's  ov/n 
children,  except  Ahaziah,  who  was  the  youngest.  Then 
Jehoram,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight,  was  smitten  with  an 
incurable  disease  of  the  bowels,  of  which  he  died  two 
years  later,  and  not  only  died  unlamented,  but  was 
refused  burial  in  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings.  In  any 
case  his  reign  and  that  of  his  son  and  successor  were 
the  most  miserable  in  the  annals  of  Judah,  as  the 
reigns  of  their  namesakes  and  kinsmen,  Ahaziah  ben- 
Ahab  and  Jehoram  ben-Ahab,  were  also  the  most 
miserable  in  the  annals  of  Israel. 

Jehoram  was  succeeded  on  the  throne  of  Judah  by 
his  son  Ahaziah.  If  the  chronology  and  the  facts  be 
correct,  Ahaziah  ben-Jehoram  of  Judah  must  have  been 
born  when  his  father  was  only  eighteen,  though  he 
was  the  youngest  of  the  king's  sons,  and  so  escaped 
from  being  massacred  in  the  Philistine  invasion.     He 


I04  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

succeeded  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  and  only  reigned  a 
single  year.  During  this  year  his  mother,  the  Gebirah 
Athaliah,  the  daughter  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel,  and  grand- 
daughter of  the  Tyrian  Ethbaal,  was  all-supreme. 
She  bent  the  weak  nature  of  her  son  to  still  further 
apostasies.  She  was  "  his  counsellor  to  do  wickedly," 
and  her  Baal-priest  Mattan  was  more  important  than 
the  Aaronic  high  priest  of  the  despised  and  desecrated 
Temple.  Never  did  Judah  sink  to  so  low  a  level,  and 
it  was  well  that  the  days  of  Ahaziah  of  Judah  were  cut 
short. 

The  only  event  in  his  reign  was  the  share  he  took 
with  his  uncle  Jehoram  of  Israel  in  his  campaign  to 
protect  Ramoth-Gilead  from  Hazael.  The  expedition 
seems  to  have  been  successful  in  its  main  purpose. 
Ramoth-Gilead,  the  key  to  the  districts  of  Argob  and 
Bashan,  was  of  immense  importance  for  commanding  the 
country  beyond  Jordan.  It  seems  to  be  the  same  as 
Ramath-Mizpeh  (Josh.  xiii.  26) ;  and  if  so,  it  was  the 
spot  where  Jacob  made  his  covenant  with  Laban. 
Ahab,  or  his  successors,  in  spite  of  the  disastrous  end 
of  the  expedition  to  Ahab  personally,  had  evidently 
recovered  the  frontier  fortress  from  the  Syrian  king.^ 
Its  position  upon  a  hill  made  its  possession  vital  to  the 
interests  of  Gilead ;  for  the  master  of  Ramah  was  the 
master  of  that  Trans-Jordanic  district.  But  Hazael  had 
succeeded  his  murdered  mastei",  and  was  already 
beginning  to  fulfil  the  ruthless  mission  which  Elisha 
had  foreseen  with  tears.  Jehoram  ben-Ahab  seems  to 
have  held  his  own  against  Hazael  for  a  time ;  but  in  the 
course  of  the  campaign  at  Ramoth  he  was  so  severely 
wounded  that  he  was  compelled  to  leave  his  army  under 
the  command  of  Jehu,  and  to  return  to  Jezreel,  to  be 

'  Jos.,  Aittt.,  IX.  vi.  I. 


viii.  25-29.]  AHAZIAH  BEN-JEHORAM  105 

healed  of  his  wounds.  Thither  his  nephew  Ahaziah 
of  Judah  went  to  visit  him  ;  and  there,  as  we  shall  hear, 
he  too  met  his  doom.  That  fate,  the  Chronicler  tells 
us,  was  the  penalty  of  his  iniquities.  "  The  destruction 
of  Ahaziah  was  of  God  by  coming  to  Joram." 

We  have  no  ground  for  accusing  either  king  of  any 
want  of  courage  ;  yet  it  was  obviously  impolitic  of 
Jehoram  to  linger  unnecessarily  in  his  luxurious  capital, 
while  the  army  of  Israel  was  engaged  in  service  on  a 
dangerous  frontier.  The  wounds  inflicted  by  the 
Syrian  archers  may  have  been  originally  severe.  Their 
arrows  at  this  time  played  as  momentous  a  part  in 
history  as  the  cloth-yard  shafts  of  our  English  bowmen 
which  "  sewed  the  French  ranks  together  "  at  Poictiers, 
Cre<jy,  and  Azincour.  But  Jehoram  had  at  any  rate 
so  far  recovered  that  he  could  ride  in  his  chariot ;  and 
if  he  had  been  wise  and  bravely  vigorous,  he  would 
not  have  left  his  army  under  a  subordinate  at  so  peril- 
ous an  epoch,  and  menaced  by  so  resolute  a  foe.  Or 
if  he  were  indeed  compelled  to  consult  the  better 
physicians  at  Jezreel,  he  should  have  persuaded  his 
nephew  Ahaziah  of  Judah — who  seems  to  have  been 
more  or  less  of  a  vassal  as  well  as  a  kinsman — to  keep 
an  eye  on  the  beleaguered  fort.  Both  kings,  however, 
deserted  their  post, — Jehoram  to  recover  perfect  health  ; 
and  Ahaziah,  who  had  been  his  comrade — as  their 
father  and  grandfather  had  gone  together  to  the  same 
war — to  pay  a  state  visit  of  condolence  to  the  royal 
invalid.  The  army  was  left  under  a  popular,  resolute, 
and  wholly  unscrupulous  commander,  and  the  results 
powerfully  affected  the  immediate  and  the  ultimate 
destiny  of  both  kingdoms. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU 

B.C.    842 

2  Kings  ix.  i — 37 

"  Te  semper  anteit  saeva  Necessitas, 
Clavos  trabales  et  cuneos  manu, 
Gestans  ahena."  Horat.,  Od.,  I.  xxxv.  17. 

ALONG  period  had  elapsed  since  Elijah  had  re- 
ceived the  triple  commission  v/hich  was  to  mark 
the  close  of  his  career.  Two  of  those  Divine  behests 
had  now  been  accomplished.  He  had  anointed  Elisha, 
son  of  Shaphat,  of  Abel-Meholah,  to  be  prophet  in  his 
room ;  ^  and  Elisha  had  anointed  Hazael  to  be  king 
over  Syria  ;^  the  third  and  more  dangeious  commission, 
involving  nothing  less  than  the  overthrow  of  the  mighty 
dynasty  of  Omri,  remained  still  unaccomplished. 

If  the  name  of  Jehu  ("Jehovah  is  He")^  had  been 
actually  mentioned  to  Elijah,  the  dreadful  secret  must 
have  remained  buried  in  the  breast  of  the  prophet  and 
in  that  of  his  successor  for  many  years.  Further,  Jehu 
was  yet  a  very  young  man,  and  to  have  marked  him 
out  as  the  founder  of  a  dynast}^  would  have  been  to 
doom   him  to  certain    destruction.     An    Eastern   king, 

'    I  Kings  xix.  15,  16. 
'''  2  Kings  viii.  12,  13. 

'  The  name  was  not  uncommon,  i  Chron.  ii.  38,  iv.  35,  xii.  3. 
106 


ix.  1-37.]  THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU  107 

whose  family  has  once  securely  seated  itself  on  the 
throne,  is  hedged  round  with  an  awful  divinity,  and 
demands  an  unquestioning  obedience.  Elijah  had  been 
removed  from  earth  before  this  task  had  been  fulfilled, 
and  Elisha  had  to  wait  for  his  opportunity.  But  the 
doom  was  passed,  though  the  judgment  was  belated. 
The  sons  of  Ahab  were  left  a  space  to  repent,  or  to 
fill  to  the  brim  the  cup  of  their  father's  iniquities. 

"The  sword  of  Heaven  is  not  in  haste  to  smite, 
Nor  yet  doth  linger." 

•  Ahaziah,  Ahab's  eldest  son,  after  a  reign  of  one  year, 
marked  only  by  crimes  and  misfortunes,  had  ended 
in  overwhelming  disaster  his  deplorable  career.  His 
brother  Jehoram  had  succeeded  him,  and  had  now  been 
on  the  throne  for  at  least  twelve  3^ears,  which  had  been 
chiefly  signalised  by  that  unsuccessful  attempt  to  recover 
the  territory  of  revolted  Moab,  to  which  we  owe  the 
celebrated  Stone  of  Mesha.  We  have  already  narrated 
the  result  of  the  campaign  which  had  so  many  vicissi- 
tudes. The  combined  armies  of  Israel,  Judah,  and 
Edom  had  been  delivered  by  the  interposition  of  Elisha 
from  perishing  of  thirst  beside  the  scorched-up  bed  of 
the  Wady-el-Ahsy  ;  and  availing  themselves  of  the  rash 
assault  of  the  Moabites,  had  swept  everything  before 
them.  But  Moab  stood  at  bay  at  Kir-Haraseth  (Kerak), 
his  strongest  fortress,  six  miles  from  Ar  or  Rabbah, 
and  ten  miles  east  of  the  southern  end  of  the  Dead 
Sea.  It  stood  three  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea,  and  is  defended  by  a  network  of  steep  valleys. 
Nevertheless,  Israel  would  have  subdued  it,  but  for 
the  act  of  horrible  despair  to  which  the  King  of  Moab 
resorted  in  his  extremity,  by  offering  up  his  eldest  son 
as  a  burnt-offering  to  Chemosh  upon  the  wall  of  the 


lo8  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

city.  Horror-stricken  by  the  catastrophe,  and  terrified 
with  the  dread  that  the  vengeance  of  Chemosh  could 
not  but  be  aroused  by  so  tremendous  a  sacrifice,  the 
besieging  host  had  retired.  From  that  moment  Moab 
had  not  only  been  free,  but  assumed  the  role  of  an 
aggressor,  and  sent  her  marauding  bands  to  harry 
and  carry  the  farms  and  homesteads  of  her  former 
conqueror.^ 

Then  followed  the  aggressions  of  Benhadad  which 
had  been  frustrated  by  the  insight  of  Elisha,  and  which 
owed  their  temporary  cessation  to  his  generosity.^ 
The  reappearance  of  the  Syrians  in  the  field  had  re- 
duced Samaria  to  the  lowest  depths  of  ghastly  famine. 
But  the  day  of  the  guilty  city  had  not  yet  come,  and 
a  sudden  panic,  caused  among  the  invaders  by  a 
rumoured  assault  of  Hittites  and  Egyptians,  had  saved 
her  from  destruction.^  Taking  advantage  of  the  respite 
caused  by  the  change  of  the  Syrian  dynasty,  and 
pressing  on  his  advantage,  Jehoram,  with  the  aid  of 
his  Judaean  nephew,  had  once  more  got  possession  of 
Ramoth-Gilead  before  Hazael  was  secure  on  the  throne 
which  he  had  usurped. 

This  then  was  the  situation  : — The  allied  and  kindred 
kings  of  Israel  and  Judah  were  idling  in  the  pomp  of 
hospitality  at  Jezreel  ;  their  armies  were  encamped 
about  Ramoth-Gilead ;  and  at  the  head  of  the  host 
of  Israel  was  the  crafty  and  vehement  grandson  of 
Nimshi. 

Elisha  saw  and  seized  his  opportunity.  The  day  of 
vengeance  from  the  Lord  had  dawned.  Things  had  not 
materially  altered  since  the  days  of  Ahab.     If  Jehovah 

'  2  Kings  xiii.  20,  xxiv.  2 ;  Jer.  xlviii. 
^  2  Kings  vi.  8-23. 
^  2  Kings  vii.  6. 


ix.  1-37.]  THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU  tog 


was  nominally  worshipped,  if  the  very  names  of  the 
kings  of  Israel  bore  witness  to  His  supremacy/  Baal 
was  worshipped  too.  The  curse  which  Elijah  had 
pronounced  against  Ahab  and  his  house  remained 
unfulfilled.  The  credit  of  prophecy  was  at  stake. 
The  blood  of  Naboth  and  his  slaughtered  sons  cried 
to  the  Lord  from  the  ground  ;  and  hitherto  it  seemed 
to  have  cried  in  vain.  If  the  Nebtim  (the  prophetic 
class)  were  to  have  their  due  weight  in  Israel,  the  hour 
had  come,  and  the  man  was  ready. 

The  light  which  falls  on  Elisha  is  dim  and  inter- 
mittent. His  name  is  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  nebulous 
wonders,  of  which  many  are  of  a  private  and  personal 
character.  But  he  was  a  known  enemy  of  Ahab  and 
his  house.  He  had,  indeed,  more  than  once  interposed 
to  snatch  them  from  ruin,  as  in  the  expedition  against 
Moab,  and  in  the  awful  straits  of  the  siege  of  Samaria 
by  the  Syrians.  But  his  person  had  none  the  less 
been  hateful  to  the  sons  of  Jezebel,  and  his  life  had 
been  endangered  by  their  bursts  of  sudden  fury.  He 
could  hardly  again  have  a  chance  so  favourable  as  that 
which  now  offered  itself,  when  the  armed  host  was  at 
one  place  and  the  king  at  another.  Perhaps,  too,  he 
may  have  been  made  aware  that  the  soldiers  were  not 
well  pleased  to  find  at  their  head  a  king  who  was  so 
far  a  faineant  as  to  leave  them  exposed  to  a  powerful 
enemy,  and  show  no  eagerness  to  return.  His  "  urgent 
private  affairs  "  were  not  so  urgent  as  to  entitle  him  to 
take  his  ease  at  luxurious  Jezreel. 

Where   Elisha  was  at  the  time  we  do  not  know — 

perhaps  at  Dothan,  perhaps  at  Samaria.     Suddenly  he 

called  to  him  a  youth — one  of  the  Sons  of  the  Prophets, 

on  whose  speed  and  courage  he  could  rely — placed  in 

'  Jehoram  =  Jehovah  is  exalted.     Ahaziah  =  Jehovah  holds. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


his  hands  a  vial  of  the  consecrated  anointing  oil/  told 
him  to  gird  up  his  loins/  and  to  speed  across  the  Jordan 
to  Ramoth-Gilead.  When  he  aixived,  he  was  to  bid 
Jehu  rise  up  from  the  company  of  his  fellow-captains 
to  hurry  him  into  "  a  chamber  within  a  chamber,"  ^  to 
shut  the  door  for  secrecy,  to  pour  the  consecrating  oil 
upon  his  head,  to  anoint  him  King  of  Israel  in  the 
name  of  Jehovah,  and  then  to  fly  without  a  moment's 
delay.* 

The  messenger — the  Rabbis  guess  that  he  was 
Jonah,  the  son  of  Amittai  ^ — knew  well  that  his  was  a 
service  of  immense  peril,  in  which  his  life  might  easily 
pay  the  forfeit  of  his  temerity.  How  was  he  to  guess 
that  at  once,  without  striking  a  blow,  the  host  of 
Israel  would  fling  to  the  winds  its  sworn  allegiance  to 
the  son  of  the  warrior  Ahab,  the  fourth  monarch  of 
the  powerful  dynasty  of  Omri  ?  Might  not  any  one 
of  a  thousand  possible  accidents  thwart  a  conspiracy  of 
which  the  success  depended  on  the  unflinching  courage 
and  promptitude  of  his  single  hand  ? 

He  was  but  a  youth,  but  he  was  the  trained  pupil  of 
a  master  who  had,  again  and  again,  stood  before  kings, 
and  not  been  afraid.  He  sprang  from  a  community 
which  inherited  the  splendid  traditions  of  the  Prophet 
of  Flame. 

He  did  not  hesitate  a  moment.  He  tightened  the 
camel's   hide  round  his  naked   limbs,  flung   back  the 

'  Vial  {pak)  only  here  and  in  i  Sam.  x.  i.  "  The  oil "  (LXX.,  rhv 
<paKov  Tov  eXaiov). 

^  "His  habit  fit  for  speed  succinct "  (Milton). 
'  Inner  chamber,  I  Kings  xx.  30. 

*  Perhaps,  if  Elisha  had  gone  in  person,  suspicion  might  have  been 
aroused.  He  was  not  more  than  fifty  at  this  time,  and  lived  forty- 
three  years  more. 

*  Seder  Olatn,  c.  18. 


1-37.]  THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU 


long  dark  locks  of  the  Nazarite,  and  sped  upon  his 
way.  A  true  son  of  the  schools  of  Jehovah's  prophets 
has,  and  can  have,  no  fear  of  man.  The  armies  of 
Israel  and  Judah  saw  the  wild,  flying  figure  of  a  young 
man,  with  his  hairy  garment  and  streaming  locks,  rush 
through  the  camp.  Whatever  might  be  their  sur- 
misings,  he  brooked  no  questions.  Availing  himself 
of  the  awe  with  which  the  shadow  of  Elijah  had 
covered  the  sacrosanct  person  of  a  prophetic  messenger, 
he  made  his  way  straight  to  the  war-council  of  the 
captains ;  and  brushing  aside  every  attempt  to  impede 
his  progress  with  the  plea  that  he  was  the  bearer  of 
Jehovah's  message,  he  burst  into  the  council  of  the 
astonished  warriors,  who  were  assembled  in  the  private 
courtyard  of  a  house  in  the  fortress-town.-^ 

He  knew  the  fame  of  Jehu,  but  did  not  know  his 
person,  and  dared  not  waste  time.  "  I  have  an  errand 
to  thee,  O  captain,"  he  said  to  the  assembly  generally. 
The  message  had  been  addressed  to  no  one  in  parti- 
cular, and  Jehu  naturally  asked,  "  Unto  which  of  all 
of  us  ? "  With  the  same  swift  intuition  which  has 
often  enabled  men  in  similar  circumstances  to  recognise 
a  leader — as  Josephus  recognised  Vespasian,  and  St. 
Severinus  recognised  Odoacer,  and  Joan  of  Arc  re- 
cognised Charles  VI.  of  France — he  at  once  replied, 
"To  thee,  O  captain."  Jehu  did  not  hesitate  a 
moment.  Prophets  had  shown,  many  a  time,  that 
their  messages  might  not  be  neglected  or  despised. 
He  rose,  and  followed  the  youth,  who  led  him  into  the 
most  secret  recess  of  the  house,  and  there,  emptying 
on  his  head  the  fragrant  oil  of  consecration,  said,  "  Thus 
saith  Jehovah,    God    of   Israel,   I    have   anointed  thee 

'  It  seems  as  though  they  were  inside  the  town  to  defend  it,  not 
a  beleaguring  host  outside. 


il2  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

king  over  the  people  of  Jehovah,  even  over  Israel."^ 
He  was  to  smite  the  house  of  his  master  Ahab  in 
vengeance  for  the  blood  of  Jehovah's  prophets  and 
servants  whom  Jezebel  had  murdered.  Ahab's  house, 
every  male  of  it,  young  and  old,  bond  and  free,^  is 
doomed  to  perish,  as  the  houses  of  Jeroboam  and  of 
Baasha  had  perished  before  them,  by  a  bloody  end. 
Further,  the  dogs  should  eat  Jezebel  by  the  rampart 
of  Jezreel,^  and  there  should  be  none  to  bury  her. 

One  moment  sufficed  for  his  daring  deed,  for  his 
burning  message ;  the  next  he  had  flung  open  the  door 
and  fled.  The  soldiers  of  the  camp  must  have 
whispered  still  more  anxiously  together  as  they  saw 
the  same  agitated  youth  rushing  through  their  lines 
with  the  same  impetuosity  which  had  marked  his 
entrance.  In  those  dark  days  the  sudden  appearance 
of  a  prophet  was  usually  the  herald  of  some  terrific 
storm.^ 

Jehu  was  utterly  taken  by  surprise  ;  but  according 
to  the  reading  preserved  by  Ephraem  Syrus  in  2  Kings 
ix.  26,  he  had  on  the  previous  night  seen  in  a  dream 
the  blood  of  Naboth  and  his  sons.  If  the  thought  of 
revolt  had  ever  passed  for  a  moment  through  his  mind, 
it  had  never  assumed  a  definite  shape.     True,  he  had 


'  The  expression  is  remarkable,  as  showing  how  completely  the 
prerogative  of  the  Chosen  People  was  supposed  to  rest  with  the 
Ten  Tribes,  as  the  most  important  representatives  of  the  seed  of 
Abraham. 

'^  "  Him  that  is  shut  up,  and  him  that  is  left  at  large  in  Israel " 
(2  Kings  ix.  8;  I  Kings  xiv.  10,  xvi.  3,  4). 

^  The  A.V.  has,  less  accurately,  "  in  the  portion  of  Jezreel."  See 
I  Kings  xxi.  23.  Heb.,  p/U.  The  /'•n  of  an  Eastern  town  is  the  ditch 
and  empty  space — a  sort  of  external  pomccrhun  around  it.  It  is  the 
place  of  offal,  and  the  haunt  of  vultures  and  pariah  dogs. 

■*  I  Sam.  xvi.  4  :  "Comest  thou  peaceably  ?  " 


ix.  1-^37.]  THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU  113 

been  a  warrior  from  his  youth.  True,  he  had  been 
one  of  Ahab's  bodyguard,  and  had  ridden  before  him 
in  a  chariot  at  least  twenty  years  earher,  and  had  now 
risen  by  valour  and  capacity  to  the  high  station  of 
captain  of  the  host.  True,  also,  that  he  had  heard 
the  great  curse  which  Elijah  had  pronounced  on  Ahab 
at  the  door  of  Naboth's  vineyard  ;  but  he  heard  it 
while  he  was  yet  an  obscure  youth,  and  he  had  little 
dreamed  that  his  was  the  hand  which  should  carry 
it  into  execution.  Who  was  he  ?  And  had  not  the  house 
of  Omri  been,  in  some  sense,  sanctioned  by  Heaven  ? 
And  were  not  the  words  of  the  prophet  "  wild  and 
wandering  cries,"  of  which  the  issues  might  be  averted 
by  such  a  repentance  as  that  of  Ahab  ? 

And  he  felt  another  misgiving.  Might  not  this 
scene  be  the  plot  of  some  secret  enemy  ?  Might  it 
not  at  any  rate  be  a  reckless  jest  palmed  upon  him  by 
his  comrades  ?  If  any  jealous  member  of  the  con- 
federacy of  captains  betrayed  the  fact  that  Jehu  had 
tampered  with  their  allegiance,  would  his  head  be  safe 
for  a  single  hour  ?  He  would  act  warily.  He  came 
back  to  his  fellow-captains  and  said  nothing. 

But  they  were  burning  with  curiosity.  Something 
must  be  impending.  Prophets  did  not  rush  in  thus 
tumultuously  for  no  purpose.  Must  not  the  youth's 
mantle  of  hair  be  some  standard  of  war  ? 

"  Is  all  right  ?  "  they  shouted.  "  Why  did  this 
frantic  fellow  come  to  thee  ?  "  ^ 

"  You  know  all  about  it,"  answered  Jehu,  with  wary 
eoolness.  "  You  know  more  about  it  than  I  do.  You 
know  the  man,  and  what  his  talk  was." 

'  2  Kings  ix.  II,  l^lSJ'Sn.  LXX.,  6  eTrtXTjTTTos.  Comp.  ver.  20,  "  he 
driveth/wnoMs/y"  (Jiyib'?). 


114  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

"  Lies  1 "  bluntly  answered  the  rough  soldiers.^  "  Tell 
us  now." 

Then  Jehu's  eye  took  measure  of  them  and  their 
feelings.  A  judge  of  men  and  of  men's  countenances, 
he  saw  conspiracy  flashing  in  their  faces.  He  saw  that 
they  suspected  the  true  state  of  things,  and  were  on 
fire  to  carry  it  out.  Perhaps  they  had  caught  sight  of 
the  vial  of  oil  under  the  youth's  scant  dress.  Could 
any  quickened  observation  at  least  fail  to  notice  that 
the  soldier's  dark  locks  were  shining  and  fragrant,  as 
they  had  not  been  a  moment  ago,  with  consecrated 
oil? 

Then  Jehu  frankly  told  them  the  perilous  secret. 
Thus  and  thus  had  the  young  prophet  spoken,  and  had 
said,  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  I  have  anointed  thee  king 
over  Israel." 

The  message  was  met  with  a  shout  of  answering 
approbation.  That  shout  was  the  death-knell  of  the 
house  of  Omri.  It  showed  that  the  reigning  dynasty 
had  utterly  forfeited  its  popularity.  No  luck  had 
followed  the  sons  of  Naboth's  murderer.  Israel  was 
weary  of  their  mother  Jezebel.  Why  was  this  king 
Jehoram,  this  king  of  evil  auspices,  who  had  been 
repudiated  by  Moab  and  harried  by  Syria. — why,  in  the 
first  gleam  of  possible  prosperity,  was  he  being  detained 
at  Jezreel  by  wounds  which  rumour  said  were  already 
sufficiently  healed  to  allow  him  to  return  to  his  post  ? 
Down  with  the  seed  of  the  murderer  and  the  sorceress! 
Let  brave  Jehu  be  king,  as  Jehovah  has  said  1 

So  the  captains  sprang  to  their  feet,  and  then  and 

there  seized  Jehu,  and  carried  him  in  triumph  to  the 

top  of  the  stairs  which  ran    round  the    inside  of  the 

courtyard,  and  stripped  off  their  mantles  to  extemporise 

'  Ver.  12,  a  lie!  ("li^.^'). 


ix.  1-37.]  THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU  115 

for  him  the  semblance  of  a  cushioned  throne.^  Then 
in  the  presence  of  such  soldiers  as  they  could  trust 
they  blew  a  sudden  blast  of  the  ram's  horn,  and 
shouted,   "  Jehu  is  king  !  " 

Jehu  was  not  the  man  to  let  the  grass  grow  under 
his  feet.  Nothing  tries  a  man's  vigour  and  nerve  so 
surely  as  a  sudden  crisis.  It  is  this  swift  resolution 
which  has  raised  many  a  man  to  the  throne,  as  it  raised 
Otho,  and  Napoleon  I.  and  Napoleon  III.  The  history 
of  Israel  is  specially  full  of  coups  d'etat^  but  no  one  of 
them  is  half  so  decisive  or  overwhelming  as  this.  Jehu 
instantly  accepted  the  office  of  Jehovah's  avenger  on 
the  house  of  Ahab.^  Everything,  as  Jehu  saw, 
depended  on  the  suddenness  and  fury  with  which  the 
blow  was  delivered.  "If  you  want  me  to  be  your 
king,"^  he  said,  "keep  the  lines  secure,  and  guard  the 
fortress  walls.  I  will  be  my  own  messenger  to  Jehoram. 
Let  no  deserter  go  forth  to  give  him  warning."* 

It  was  agreed ;  and  Jehu,  only  taking  with  him 
Bidkar,  his  fellow-officer,  and  a  small  band  of  followers, 
set  forth  at  full  speed  from  Ramoth-Gilead. 

The  fortress  of  Ramoth,  now  the  important  town  of 
Es-Salt,  a  place  which  must  always  have  been  the  key 

'  What  is  meant  by  the  gereni  of  the  staircase  is  uncertain.  The 
word  means  "  a  bone  "  (Aquila,  (5(rrw5es),  and  is,  in  this  connection,  an 
arra^  Xeydfxevov.  The  Targum  explains  it  as  the  top  vane  of  a  stair- 
dial.  The  margin  of  the  R.V.  renders  it  "on  the  bare  steps."  The 
Vulgate  renders  it  m  similitudinem  tribunalis,  as  though  gereni 
meant  tselem.  The  LXX.  conceal  their  perplexity  by  simply  trans- 
lating the  word  ewl  to  yapefi.  Grotius  and  Clericus,  m  fastigio 
graduum.     Symmachus,  eiri  fiiav  tQv  dva^aOfilSojv. 

-  2  Kings  ix.  14  :  "  So  Jehu  conspired  against  Joram."  The  same 
word  is  used  in  2  Chron.  xxiv.  25,  26. 

'  2  Kings  ix.  15,  R.V  :  "  If  this  be  your  mind." 

'  So  far  as  we  know,  he  never  returned  to  Ramoth-Gilead,  of  which 
indeed  we  hear  no  more. 


ti6  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

of  Gilead,  was  built  on  the  summit  of  a  rocky  headland, 
fortified  by  nature  as  well  as  by  art.  It  is  south  of  the 
river  Jabbok,  and  lies  at  the  head  of  the  only  easy  road 
which  runs  down  westward  to  the  Jordan  and  eastward 
to  the  rich  plateau  of  the  interior.^  Crossing  the  fords 
of  the  Jordan,  Jehu  would  soon  be  able  to  join  the 
main  road,  which,  passing  Tirzah,  Zaretan,  and  Beth- 
shean,  and  sweeping  eastward  of  Mount  Gilboa,  gives 
ready  access  to  Jezreel. 

The  watchman  on  the  lofty  watchtower  of  the  summer 
palace  caught  sight  of  a  storm  of  dust  careering  along 
from  the  eastward  up  the  valley  towards  the  city.^  The 
times  were  wild  and  troublous.  What  could  it  be  ? 
He  shouted  his  alarm,  "  I  see  a  troop  I  "  The  tidings 
were  startling,  and  the  king  was  instantly  informed 
that  chariots  and  horsemen  were  approaching  the  royal 
city.  "Send  a  horseman  to  meet  them," he  said,  "with 
the  message,  '  Is  all  well  ?  '  " 

Forth  flew  the  rider,  and  cried  to  the  rushing  escort, 
"The  king  asks,  'Is  all  well?  Is  it  peace?"  For 
probably  the  anxious  city  hoped  that  there  might  have 
been  some  victory  of  the  army  against  Hazael,  which 
would  fill  them  with  joy. 

"What  hast  thou  to  do  with  peace?  Turn  thee 
behind  me,"  answered  Jehu ;  and  perforce  the  hor.se- 
man,  whatever  may  have  been  his  conjectures,  had 
to  follow  in  the  rear. 

"  He  reached  them,"  cried  the  sentry  on  the  watch- 
tower,  "  but  he  does  not  return." 

The  news  was  enigmatical  and   alarming  ;   and   the 


•  Tnstmvn,  Land  of  Moab. 

'^  Heb.,  Shiplthath,  "adust-storm"  (LXX.,  Kovioprdv,  al.  &x\ov;  Vulg., 
globum),  not  as  in  A.V.  and  R.V.,  "a  company."  Comp.  Isa.  Ix.  6; 
Ezek.  xxvi.  lo. 


ix.  1-37.]  THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU  l\^ 

troubled  king  sent  another  horseman.  Again  the  same 
colloquy  occurred,  and  again  the  watchman  gave  the 
ominous  message,  adding  to  it  the  yet  more  perplexing 
news  that,  in  the  mad  and  headlong  driving^  of  the 
charioteer,  he  recognises  the  driving  of  Jehu,  the  son 
of  Nimshi.^ 

What  had  happened  to  his  array  ?  Why  should  the 
captain  of  the  host  be  driving  thus  furiously  to  Jezreel  ? 

Matters  were  evidently  very  critical,  whatever  the 
swift  approach  of  chariots  and  horsemen  might  por- 
tend. "  Yoke  my  chariot,"  said  Jehoram  ;  and  his 
nephew  Ahaziah,  who  had  shared  his  campaign,  and 
was  no  less  consumed  with  anxiety  to  learn  tidings 
which  could  not  but  be  pressing,  rode  by  him  in  another 
chariot  to  meet  Jehu.  They  took  with  them  no  escort 
worth  mentioning.  The  rebellion  was  not  only  sudden, 
but  wholly  unexpected. 

The  two  kings  met  Jehu  in  a  spot  of  the  darkest 
omen.  It  was  the  plot  of  ground  which  had  once  been 
the  vineyard  of  Naboth,  at  the  door  of  which  Ahab 
had  heard  from  Elijah  the  awful  message  of  his  doom. 
As  the  New  Forest  was  ominous  to  our  early  Norman 
kings  as  the  witness  of  their  cruelties  and  encroach- 
ments, so  was  this  spot  to  the  house  of  Omri,  tho.ugh 
it  was  adjacent  to  their  ivory  palace,  and  had  been 
transformed  from  a  vineyard  into  a  garden  or  pleasance. 

"  Is  it  peace,  Jehu  ?  "  shouted  the  agitated  king ;  by 

'  Clearly  the  rendering  "he  driveth  furiously  "  is  right.  The  word 
"  furiously "  is  beshigga'on  (Vulg.,  prceceps),  and  is  connected  with 
"mad,"  ver.  ii.  LXX.,  h  irapaWay^.  Arab.  Chald.,  "quietly." 
Josephus,  "leisurely,  and  in  good  order."  Such  an  approach  would 
not,  however,  have  been  at  all  in  accordance  with  the  perilous 
urgency  of  his  intent. 

^  Jehu,  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  is  named  from  his  grandfather  Nimshi, 
who  seems  to  have  been  the  founder  of  the  greatness  of  his  house. 


ii8  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

which  probably  he  only  meant  to  ask,   "Is  all  going 
well  in  the  army  at  Ramoth  ?  " 

The  fierce  answer  which  burst  from  the  lips  of 
his  general  fatally  undeceived  him.  "What  peace," 
brutally  answered  the  rebel,  "  so  long  as  the  whore- 
doms of  thy  mother  Jezebel  and  her  witchcrafts  are  so 
many  ?  "  She,  after  all,  was  the  fons  et  origo  mali 
to  the  house  of  Jehoram.  Hers  was  the  dark  spirit 
of  murder  and  idolatry  which  had  walked  in  that  house. 
She  was  the  instigator  and  the  executer  of  the  crime 
against  Naboth.  She  had  been  the  foundress  of  Baal- 
and  Asherah-worship  ;  she  was  the  murderess  of  the 
prophets  ;  she  had  been  specially  marked  out  for  ven- 
geance in  the  doom  pronounced  both  by  Elijah  and  Elisha. 

The  answer  was  unmistakable.  This  was  a  revolt, 
a  revolution.  "  Treachery,  Ahaziah  !  "  shouted  the 
terrified  king,  and  instantly  wheeled  round  his  chariot 
to  flee.^  But  not  so  swiftly  as  to  escape  the  Nemesis 
which  had  been  stealing  upon  him  with  leaden  feet,  but 
now  smote  him  irretrievably  with  iron  hand.  Without 
an  instant's  hesitation,  Jehu  snatched  his  bow  from  his 
attendant  charioteer,  "  filled  his  hands  with  it,"  and 
from  its  full  stretch  and  resonant  string  sped  the  arrow, 
which  smote  Jehoram  in  the  back  with  fatal  force,  and 
passed  through  his  heart .^  Without  a  word  the  un- 
happy king  sank  down  upon  his  knees  ^  in  his  chariot, 
and  fell  face  forward,  dead. 

"  Take  him  up,"  cried  Jehu  to  Bidkar,*  "  and  fling 
him  down  where  he  is, — here  in  this  portion  of  the 
field  of  Naboth  the  Jezreelite.      Here,  years  ago,  you 

'  2  Kings  ix.  23  ;   "  Turned  his  hands."     Comp.  I  Kings  xxii.  34. 
^  Ver.  24.    Vulg.,   inter  scapulas.  ^  LXX.,  reading  VB^B  71?. 

*  Bidkar,  perhaps  Bar-dekar,  "Son  of  stabbing."     Comp.   I  Kings 
iv.  9. 


ix.  I-37-]  THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU  119 

and  I,  as  we  rode  behind  Ahab/  heard  EUjah  utter  his 
oracle  on  this  man's  father,  that  vengeance  should  meet 
him  here.  Where  the  clogs  licked  the  blood  of  Naboth 
and  his  sons,  let  dogs  lick  the  blood  of  the  son  of  Ahab."^ 
But  Jehu  was  not  the  man  to  let  the  king's  murder 
stay  his  chariot-wheels  when  more  work  had  yet  to  be 
done.  Ahaziah  of  Judah,  too, 'belonged  to  Ahab's  house, 
for  he  was  Ahab's  grandson,  and  Jehoram's  nephew 
and  ally.  Without  stopping  to  mourn  or  avenge  the 
tragedy  of  his  uncle's  murder,  Ahaziah  fled  towards 
Bethgan  or  Engannim,^  the  fountain  of  gardens,  south 
of  Jezreel,  on  the  road  to  Samaria  and  Jerusalem.  Jehu 
gave  the  laconic  order,  "  Smite  him  also  "  ;  *  but  fright 
added  wings  to  the  speed  of  the  hapless  King  of  Judah. 
His  chariot-steeds  were  royal  steeds,  and  were  fresh ; 
those  of  Jehu  were  spent  with  the  long,  fierce  drive 
from  Ramoth.  He  got  as  far  as  the  ascent  of  Gur 
before  he  was  overtaken.''  There,  not  far  from 
Ibleam,  the  rocky  hill  impeded  his  flight,  and  he  was 
wounded  by  the  pursuers.  But  he  managed  to  struggle 
onwards  to  Megiddo,  on  the  south  of  the  plain  of  Jezreel, 
and  there  he  hid  himself."     He  was  discovered,  dragged 

'  Heb.,  ts'madim,  "  in  pairs  " ;  LXX.,  iwijSe^TjKOTes  iirl  (^evyr).  It  is 
uncertain  whether  Jehu  and  Bidkar  were  in  the  same  chariot  as 
Ahab,  as  Josephus  says  (^Kade^ofxevovs  6ina9eu  rov  apfiaros),  or  in  a 
separate  chariot. 

^  2  Kings  ix.  26  :  "Saith  the  Lord."'  Ephraem  Syrus  omits  these 
words.  He  says  that  the  night  before  Jehu  had  seen  the  blood 
of  Naboth  and  his  sons  in  a  dream.  Comp.  Horn.,  Od.,  iii.  258: 
T(jj  Ke  oi  oi'dk  davovTL  xi/rrjj'  eTrt  yaiav  e^^vav  'AW  dpa  rdvye  kwcs  re 
/cat  otwcoi  Karedaipav  Ket'^ecoJ'  iv  vedi<j}. 

^  A.  v.,  "By  the  way  of  the  garden-house."     LXX.,  Baidydy. 

*  The  text  is  a  little  uncertain. 

*  Thenius  supposes  "Gur"  to  mean  "a  caravanserai."  Comp. 
2  Chron.  xxvi.  7,  Gur-Baal;   Vulg.,  Hospitium  Baalis. 

•^  The  account  of  the  Chronicler  (2  Chron.  xxii.  9)  diifers  from  that 
of  the  earlier  historian.     It  may,  however,  be  (uncertainly)  reconciled 


THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


out,  and  slain.  Even  Jehu's  fierce  emissaries  did  not 
make  war  on  dead  bodies,  any  more  than  Hannibal  did, 
or  Charles  V.  They  left  such  meanness  to  Jehu  him- 
self, and  to  our  Charles  II.  They  did  not  interfere  with 
the  dead  king's  remains.  His  servants  carried  them 
to  Jerusalem,  and  there  he  was  buried  with  his  fathers 
in  the  sepulchre  of  the  kings,  in  the  city  of  David.  As 
there  was  nothing  more  to  tell  about  him,  the  historian 
omits  the  usual  formula  about  the  rest  of  the  acts  of 
Ahaziah,  and  all  that  he  did.  His  death  illustrates  the 
proverb  Mitgegangen  mitgefangen  :  he  was  the  comrade 
of  evil  men,  and  he  perished  with  them. 

Jehu  speedily  reached  Jezreel,  but  the  interposition 
of  Jehoram  and  the  orders  for  the  pursuit  of  Ahaziah 
had  caused  a  brief  delay,  and  Jezebel  had  already  been 
made  aware  that  her  doom  was  imminent. 

Not  even  the  sudden  and  dreadful  death  of  her  son, 
and  the  nearness  of  her  own  fate,  daunted  the  steely 
heart  of  the  Tyrian  sorceress.  If  she  was  to  die,  she 
would  meet  death  like  a  queen.  As  though  for  some 
Court  banquet,  she  painted  her  eyelashes  and  eyebrows 
with  antimony,  to  make  her  eyes  look  large  and  lus- 
trous,^ and  put  on  her  jewelled  head-dress.^     Then  she 

with  it  as  in  the  text,  if  we  suppose  the  words  "  he  was  hid  In 
Samaria  "  to  mean  in  Megiddo,  in  the  territory  of  Samaria.  Obviousl}', 
however,  the  traditions  varied.  There  are  difficuhies  about  the  story, 
for  Ibleam  is  on  the  west  towaids  Megiddo,  and  not  between  Jezreel 
and  Samaria. 

'  "^I-IS,  "Lead-glance."  A  mixture  of  pulverised  antimony  {stibium) 
and  zinc  is  still  used  by  women  in  the  East  for  this  purpose.  In  calli- 
blepharis  dilatat  oaths  (Plin.,  H.  N.,  xxxiii.).  Kercn-Happuk,  the  name 
given  by  Job  to  one  of  his  daughters,  means  "  horn  of  stibium."  The 
object  could  hardly  have  been  to  attract  Jehu  (as  Ephracm  Syrus 
thinks),  for  Jezebel  had  already  a  grandson  twcntj'-thrce  years  old 
(viii.  26). 

'■^  A.V.,  "Tired  her  head."  Comp.  tiara.  Lit.,  "made  good"; 
LXX.,  Tjjddvve. 


ix.  1-37.]  THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU  121 

mounted  the  palace  tower,  and,  looking  down  through 
the  lattice  above  the  city  gate,  watched  the  thundering 
advance  of  Jehu's  chariot,  and  hailed  the  triumphant 
usurper  with  the  bitterest  insult  she  could  devise.  She 
knew  that  Omri,  her  husband's  father,  had  taken  swift 
vengeance  on  the  guilt  of  the  usurper  Zimri,  who  had 
been  forced  to  burn  himself  in  the  harem  at  Tirzah 
after  one  month's  troubled  reign.  Her  shrill  voice  was 
heard  above  the  roar  of  the  chariot-wheels  in  the 
ominous  taunt, — 

"  Is  it  peace,  thou  Zimri,  thou  murderer  of  thy 
master  ?  "  ^ 

No  ! — She  meant,  "  There  is  no  peace  for  thee  nor 
thine,  any  more  than  for  me  or  mine  1  Thou  mayest 
murder  us  ;  but  thee  too,  thy  doom  awaiteth  !  " 

Stung  by  the  ill-omened  words,  Jehu  looked  up  at  her 
and  shouted, — 

"  Who  is  on  my  side  ?     Who  ?  " 

The  palace  was  apparently  rife  with  traitors.  Ahab 
had  been  the  first  polygamist  among  the  kings  of  Israel, 
and  therefore  the  first  also  to  introduce  the  odious  atro- 
city of  eunuchs.  Those  hapless  wretches,  the  portents 
of  Eastern  seraglios,  the  disgrace  of  humanity,  are 
almost  always  the  retributive  enemies  of  the  societies 
of  which  they  are  the  helpless  victims.  Fidelity  or 
gratitude  are  rarely  to  be  looked  for  from  natures 
warped  into  malignity  by  the  ruthless  misdoing  of  men. 
Nor  was  the  nature  of  Jezebel  one  to  inspire  affection. 
One  or  two  eunuchs  ^  immediately  thrust  out  of  the 

'  Josephus  gives  the  sense  very  well :  KaX6j  SoOXoy  6  diroKreivas  rbv 
Se(Xir6T7]v  (_Anlt.,  IX.  vi.  4).  The  same  question  might  have  been 
addressed  to  Baasha,  Shallum,  Menahem,  Pekah,  and  Hoshea ;  but  at 
least  Jehu  might  plead  a  prophet's  call. 

^  "Two  or  three."  Lit.,  "two  three,"  like  the  old  English  "two 
three  "  for  "  several." 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


windows  their  bloated  and  beardless  faces.  "  Fling  her 
down  I  "  Jehu  shouted.  Down  they  flung  the  wretched 
queen  (has  any  queen  ever  died  a  death  so  shamelessly 
ignominious  ?),  and  her  blood  spirted  upon  the  wall, 
and  on  the  horses.  Jehu,  who  had  only  stopped  for 
an  instant  in  his  headlong  rush,  drove  his  horses  over 
her  corpse,^  and  entered  the  gate  of  her  capital  with 
his  wheels  crimson  with  her  blood.  History  records 
scarcely  another  instance  of  such  a  scene,  except  when 
Tullia,  a  century  later,  drove  her  chariot  over  the  dead 
body  of  her  father  Sei'vius  Tullius  in  the  Vicus  Sceleratus 
of  ancient  Rome.^ 

But  what  cared  Jehu  ?  Many  a  conqueror  ere  now 
has  sat  down  to  the  dinner  prepared  for  his  enemy  ; 
and  the  obsequious  household  of  the  dead  tyrants, 
ready  to  do  the  bidding  of  their  new  lord,  ushered  the 
hungry  man  to  the  banquet  provided  for  the  kings 
whom  he  had  slain.  No  man  dreamt  of  uttering  a  wail ; 
no  man  thought  of  raising  a  finger  for  dead  Jehoram  or 
for  dead  Jezebel,  though  the}'  had  all  been  under  her 
sway  for  at  least  five-and-thirty  years.  "  The  wicked 
perish,  and  no  man  regardeth."  "When  the  wicked 
perish,  there  is  shouting."  ^ 

We  may  be  startled  at  a  revolution  so  sudden  and 
so  complete ;  yet  it  is  true  to  history.  A  tyrant  or 
a  cabal  may  oppress  a  nation  for  long  years.  Their 
word  may  be  thought  absolute,  their  power  irresistible. 
Tyranny  seems  to  paralyse  the  courage  of  resistance, 
like  the  fabled  head  of  Medusa.    Remove  its  fascination 

'  Ver.  33.  Heb.,  "He  trod  her  underfoot."  LXX.,  SweTrdrijcraj' 
avT'fiv ;  Vulg.,  Concnlcaverunt  earn. 

*  Liv.,  i.  46-48. 

'  Prov.  xi.  10.  Compare  the  remark  of  Voltaire,  who  saw  "  le 
peuple  ivre  de  vin  et  de  joie  de  la  iiiort  dc  Louis  XIV." 


ix.  1-37.J  THE  REVOLT  OF  JEHU  123 

of  corruption,  and  men  become  men,  and  not  machines, 
once  more.  Jehu's  daring  woke  Israel  from  the  lethargy 
which  had  made  her  tolerate  the  murders  and  enchant- 
ments of  this  Baal-worshipping  alien.  In  the  same  way 
in  one  week  Robespierre  seemed  to  be  an  invincible 
autocrat ;  the  next  week  his  power  had  crumbled  into 
dust  and  ashes  at  a  touch. 

It  was  not  until  Jehu  had  sated  his  thirst  and  hunger 
after  that  wild  drive,  which  had  ended  in  the  murder 
of  two  kings  and  a  queen  and  in  his  sudden  elevation  to 
a  throne,  that  it  even  occurred  to  this  new  tiger-king 
to  ask  what  had  become  of  Jezebel.  But  when  he  had 
eaten  and  drunk,  he  said,  "  Go,  see  now  to  this  cursed 
woman,  and  bury  her  :  for  she  is  a  king's  daughter." 
That  she  had  been  first  Princess,  then  Queen,  then 
Gebirah  in  Israel  for  nearly  a  full  lifetime  was  nothing  : 
it  was  nothing  to  Jehu  that  she  was  a  v/ife,  and  mother, 
and  grandmother  of  kings  and  queens  both  of  Israel 
and  Judah ; — but  she  was  also  the  daughter  of  Ethbaal, 
the  priest-king  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  therefore  any 
shameful  treatment  of  her  remains  might  kindle  trouble 
from  the  region  of  Phoenicia.^ 

But  no  one  had  taken  the  trouble  so  much  as  to  look 
after  the  corpse  of  Jezebel.  The  populace  of  Jezreel 
were  occupied  with  their  new  king.  Where  Jezebel 
fell,  there  she  had  been  suffered  to  lie ;  and  no  one, 
apparently,  cared  even  to  despoil  her  of  the  royal  robes, 
now  saturated  with  bloodshed.  Flung  from  the  palaee- 
tower,  her  body  had  fallen  in  the  open  space  just  outside 
the  walls — what  is  called  "  the  mounds  "  of  an  Eastern 
city.     In  the  strange  carelessness  of  sanitation  which 

'  I  Kings  xvi.  31.  At  this  time  Ethbaal  was  dead.  He  reigned 
probably  from  B.C.  940-908,  and  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight 
(Jos.,  Antt.,  VIII.  xiii.  I,  IX.  vi.  6 ;  c.  Ap.,  i,  18). 


124  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

describes  as  "  fate  "  even  the  visitation  of  an  avoidable 
pestilence,  all  sorts  of  oifal  are  shot  into  this  vacant 
space  to  fester  in  the  tropic  heat.  I  myself  have  seen 
the  pariah  dogs  and  the  vultures  feeding  on  a  ghastly 
dead  horse  in  a  ruined  space  within  the  street  of  Beit- 
Dejun  ;  and  the  dogs  and  the  vultures — "  those  national 
undertakers" — had  done  their  work  unbidden  on  the 
corpse  of  the  Tyrian  queen.  When  men  went  to  bury 
her,  they  only  found  a  few  dog-mumbled  bones — the 
skull,  and  the  feet,  and  the  palms  of  the  hands.^  They 
brought  the  news  to  Jehu  as  he  rested  after  his  feast. 
It  did  not  by  any  means  discompose  him.  He  at  once 
recognised  that  another  levin-bolt  had  fallen  from  the 
thunder-crash  of  Elijah's  prophecy,  and  he  troubled 
himself  about  the  matter  no  further.  Her  carcase,  as 
the  man  of  God  had  prophesied,  had  become  as  dung 
upon  the  face  of  the  field,  so  that  none  could  say, 
"This  is  Jezebel."^ 

'   I  Kings  xxi.  23. 

-  Comp.  Psalm  Ixxxiii.  10.  Her  name  remained  a  by-word  till 
the  latest  days  (Rev.  ii.  20),  and  the  Spanish  Jews  called  their 
persecutress  Isabella  the  Catholic  "  Jezebel." 


CHAPTER*  XII 

JEHU  ESTABLISHED   ON   THE   THRONE 

B.C.    842 — 814 

2  Kings  x.  i — 17 

"The  devil  can  quote  Scripture  for  his  purpose." 

Shakespeare. 

BUT  the  work  of  Jehu  was  not  yet  over.  He  was 
established  at  Jezreel ;  he  was  lord  of  the  palace 
and  seraglio  of  his  master ;  the  army  of  Israel  was  with 
him.  But  who  could  be  sure  that  no  civil  war  would 
arise,  as  between  the  partisans  of  Zimri  and  Omri,  as 
between  Omri  and  Tibni  ?  Ahab,  first  of  the  kings  of 
Israel,  had  left  many  sons.  There  were  no  less  than 
seventy  of  these  princes  at  Samaria.  Might  there  not 
be  among  them  some  youth  of  greater  courage  and 
capacity  than  the  murdered  Jehoram  ?  And  could  it 
be  anticipated  that  the  late  dynasty  was  so  utterly 
unfortunate  and  execrated  as  to  have  none  left  to  do 
them  reverence,  or  to  strike  one  blow  on  their  behalf, 
after  nearly  half  a  century  of  undisputed  sway  ?  ^  Jehu's 
coup  de  main  had  been  brilliantly  successful.  In  one 
day  he  had  leapt  into  the  throne.  But  Samaria  was 
strong  upon  its  watch-tower  hill.  It  was  full  of  Ahab's 
sons,  and  had  not  yet  declared  on  Jehu's  side.     It  might 

'  Omri,  12  years;  Ahab,  22;  Ahaziah,  18;  Jehoram,  12. 
125 


126  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

be  expected  to  feel  some  gratitude  to  the  dynasty 
which  Jehu  had  supplanted,  seeing  that  it  owed  to  the 
grandfather  of  the  king  whom  he  had  just  slain  its  very 
existence  as  the  capital  of  Israel. 

He  would  put  a  bold  face  on  his  usurpation,  and 
strike  while  the  iron  was  hot.  He  would  not  rouse 
opposition  by  seeming  to  assume  that  Samaria  would 
accept  his  rebellion.  He  therefore  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
rulers  of  Samaria  ^ — which  was  but  a  journey  of  nine 
hours'  distance  from  Jezreel — and  to  the  guardians  of 
the  young  princes,  reminding  them  that  they  were 
masters  in  a  strong  city,  protected  with  its  own  con- 
tingent of  chariots  and  horses,  and  well  supplied  with 
armour.  He  suggested  that  they  should  select  the  most 
promising  of  Ahab's  sons,  make  him  king,  and  begin  a 
civil  war  on  his  behalf 

The  event  showed  how  prudent  was  this  line  of  con- 
duct. As  yet  Jehu  had  not  transferred  the  army  from 
Ramoth-Gilead.  He  had  doubtless  taken  good  care  to 
prevent  intelligence  of  his  plans  from  reaching  the 
adherents  of  Jehoram  in  Samaria.  To  them  the 
unknown  was  the  terrible.  All  they  knew  was  that 
"  Behold,  two  kings  stood  not  before  him  !  "  The  army 
must  have  sanctioned  his  revolt :  what  chance  had 
they  ?  As  for  loyalty  and  affection,  if  ever  they  had 
existed  towards  this  hapless  dynasty,  they  had  vanished 
like  a  dream.  The  people  of  Samaria  and  Jezreel  had 
once  been  obedient  as  sheep  to  the  iron  dominance  of 
Jezebel.  They  had  tolerated  her  idol-abominations, 
and  the  insolence  of  her  army  of  dark-browed  priests. 

'  The  reading  of  2  Kings  x.  i,  "  Unto  the  rulers  oi  Jezreel,"  is  clearly 
wrong.  The  LXX.  reads,  "  Unto  the  rulers  of  Samaria."  Unless 
"  Jezreel  "  be  a  clerical  error  for  Israel,  we  must  read,  "  He  sent  letters 
from  Jezreel  unto  the  rulers  of  Samaria." 


X.  I-I7.]    JEHU  ESTABLISHED   ON   THE   THRONE  127 

They  had  not  risen  to  defend  the  prophets  of  Jehovah, 
and  had  suffered  even  EHjah,  twice  over,  to  be  forced 
to  flee  for  his  hfe.  They  had  borne,  hitherto  without 
a  murmur,  the  tragedies,  the  sieges,  the  famines,  the 
humihations,  with  which  during  these  reigns  they  had 
been  famihar.  And  was  not  Jehovah  against  the 
waning  fortunes  of  the  Beni-Omri  ?  Ehjah  had 
undoubtedly  cursed  them,  and  now  the  curse  was 
falhng.  Jehu  must  doubtless  have  let  it  be  known  that 
he  was  only  carrying  out  the  behest  of  their  own  citizen 
the  great  Elisha,  who  had  sent  to  him  the  anointing  oil. 
They  could  find  abundant  excuses  to  justify  their 
defection  from  the  old  house,  and  they  sent  to  the 
terrible  man  a  message  of  almost  abject  submission  : — 
Let  him  do  as  he  would  ;  they  would  make  no  king  : 
they  were  his  servants,  and  would  do  his  bidding. 

Jehu  was  not  likely  to  be  content  with  verbal  or  even 
written  promises.  He  determined,  with  cynical  subtlety, 
to  make  them  put  a  very  bloody  sign-manual  to  their 
treaty,  by  implicating  them  irrevocably  in  his  rebellion. 
He  wrote  them  a  second  mandate, 

"  If,"  he  said,  "  ye  accept  my  rule,  prove  it  by  your 
obedience.  Cut  off  the  heads  of  your  master's  sons, 
and  see  that  they  are  brought  to  me  here  to-morrow 
by  yourselves  before  the  evening." 

The  ruthless  order  was  fulfilled  to  the  letter  by  the 
terrified  traitors.  The  king's  sons  were  with  their 
tutors,  the  lords  of  the  city.  On  the  very  morning  that 
Jehu's  second  missive  arrived,  every  one  of  these  poor 
guiltless  youths  was  unceremoniously  beheaded.  The 
hideous,  bleeding  trophies  were  packed  in  fig-baskets 
and  sent  to  Jezreel.^ 

'  Fig-baskets,  Jer.  xxiv.  2.     The  word  dudint  is  rendered  "  pots  " 


128  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

When  Jehu  was  informed  of  this  revolting  present 
it  was  evening,  and  he  was  sitting  at  a  meal  with  his 
friends.^  He  did  not  trouble  himself  to  rise  from  his 
feast  or  to  look  at  "death  made  proud  by  pure  and 
princely  beauty."  He  knew  that  those  seventy  heads 
could  only  be  the  heads  of  the  royal  youths.  He 
issued  a  cool  and  brutal  order  that  they  should  be 
piled  in  two  heaps  ^  until  the  morning  on  either  side 
the  entrance  of  the  city  gates.  Were  they  watched  ? 
or  were  the  dogs  and  vultures  and  hyaenas  again  left 
to  do  their  work  upon  them  ?  We  do  not  know.  In 
any  case  it  was  a  scene  of  brutal  barbarism  such  as 
might  have  been  witnessed  in  living  memory  in  Khiva 
or  Bokhara ;  ^  nor  must  we  forget  that  even  in  the  last 
century  the  heads  of  the  brave  and  the  noble  rotted  on 
Westminster  Hall  and  Temple  Bar,  and  over  the  Gate 
of  York,  and  over  the  Tolbooth  at  Edinburgh,  and  on 
Wexford  Bridge. 

The  day  dawned,  and  all  the  people  were  gathered 
at  the  gate,  which  was  the  scene  of  justice.  With  the 
calmest  air  imaginable  the  warrior  came  out  to  them, 
and  stood  between  the  mangled  heads  of  those  who 
but  yesterday  had  been  the  pampered  minions  of 
fortune  and  luxury.  His  speech  was  short  and  politic 
in  its  brutality.  **  Be  yourselves  the  judges,"  he  said. 
"  Ye  are  righteous.  Jezebel  called  me  a  Zimri.  Yes  ! 
I  conspired  against  my  master  and  slew  him  :  but " — 
and  here  he  casually  pointed  to  the  horrible,  bleeding 
heaps — **  who  smote  all  these  ?  "     The  people  of  Jezreel 

in  I  Sam.  ii.  14.     LXX.,  iv  KaprdWois ;  Vulg.,  in  cophinis.     In  Psalm 
Ixxxi.  6  the  LXX.  has  iv  tc^  Kocplvi^. 

'  Jos.,  Antt.,  IX.  vi.  5. 

^  Heb.,  Tsibourim ;  LXX.,  ^ovvovs. 

"  Comp.  I  Sam.  xvii.  54 ;  2  Mace.  xv.  30. 


X.  I- 1 7.]    JEHU  ESTABLISHED   ON   THE   THRONE  129 

and  the  lords  of  Samaria  were  not  only  passive 
witnesses  of  his  rebelHon  ;  they  were  active  sharers  in 
it.  They  had  dabbled  their  hands  in  the  same  blood. 
Now  they  could  not  choose  but  accept  his  dynasty  : 
for  who  was  there  besides  himself  ?  And  then,  chang- 
ing his  tone,  he  does  not  offer  "  the  tyrant's  devilish 
plea,  necessity,"  to  cloak  his  atrocities,  but — like  a 
Romish  inquisitor  of  Seville  or  Granada — claims  Divine 
sanction  for  his  sanguinary  violence.  This  was  not 
his  doing.  He  was  but  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
fate.  Jehovah  is  alone  responsible.  He  is  doing  what 
He  spake  by  His  servant  Elijah.  Yes  I  and  thei'e  was 
yet  more  to  do ;  for  no  word  of  Jehovah's  shall  fall  to 
the  ground. 

With  the  same  cynical  ruthlessness,  and  cold  indif- 
ference to  smearing  his  robes  in  the  blood  of  the  slain, 
he  carried  out  to  the  bitter  end  his  task  of  policy  which 
he  gilded  with  the  name  of  Divine  justice.  Not  content 
with  slaying  Ahab's  sons,  he  set  himself  to  extirpate 
his  race,  and  slew  all  who  remained  to  him  in  Jezreel, 
not  only  his  kith  and  kin,  but  every  lord  and  every 
Baal-priest  who  favoured  his  house,  until  he  left  him 
none  remaining. 

But  what  a  frightful  picture  'do  these  scenes  furnish 
us  of  the  state  of  religion  and  even  of  civilisation  in 
Jezreel !  There  was  this  man-eating  tiger  of  a  king 
wallowing  in  the  blood  of  princes,  and  enacting  scenes 
which  remind  us  of  Dahomey  and  Ashantee,  or  of 
some  Tartary  khanate  where  human  hands  are  told 
out  in  the  market-place  after  some  avenging  raid. 
And  amid  all  this  savagery,  squalor,  and  Turkish 
atrocity,  the  man  pleads  the  sanction  of  Jehovah,  and 
claims,  unrebuked,  that  he  is  only  carrying  out  the 
behests  of  Jehovah's  prophets  1     It   is  not  until  long 


I30  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


afterwards    that   the  voice  of  a  prophet  is   heard    re- 
pudiating his  plea  and  denouncing  his  bloodthirstiness. 

"An  evil  soul   producing  holy  witness 
Is  like  a  villain  with  a  smiling  cheek — 
A  goodly  apple  rotten  at  the  core." 

'  Hos.  i.  4. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

FRESH  MURDERS— THE  EXTIRPATION    OF  BAAL- 
WORSHIP  (B.C.  S42) 

2  Kings  x.  12 — 28 

"Jehu,  sur  les  hauls  lieux,  enfin  osant  offrir 
Un  temeraire  encens  que  Dieu  ne  peut  soufFrir, 
N'a  pour  servir  sa  cause  et  venger  ses  injures 
Ni  le  coeur  assez  droit,  ni  les  mains  assez  pures." 

Racine. 

AFTER  such  abject  subservience  had  been  shown 
him  by  the  lords  of  Samaria  and  Jezreel,  Jehu 
evidently  had  no  further  shadow  of  apprehension.  He 
seems  to  have  loved  blood  for  its  own  sake — to  have 
been  seized  by  a  vertigo  of  blood-poisoning.  Having 
waded  through  slaughter  to  a  throne,  he  loved  to  wash 
his  footsteps  in  the  blood  of  the  slain,  and  to  stretch 
to  the  very  uttermost — to  stretch  until  it  cracked  all 
its  ravelled  threads — the  Divine  sanction  claimed  by  his 
fanaticism  or  his  hypocrisy. 

When  he  had  finished  his  massacres  at  Jezreel,  he 
went  to  Samaria.  It  was  only  a  journey  of  a  few 
hours.  On  the  high  road  he  met  a  company  of  travel- 
lers, whose  escort  and  rich  apparel  showed  that  they 
were  persons  of  importance.  They  were  about  to  halt, 
perhaps  for  refreshment,  at  the  shearing-house  of  the 


132  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


shepherds — the  place  in  which  the  sheep  were  gathered 
before  they  were  shorn. ^ 

"  Who  are  ye  ?  "  he  asked. 

They  answered  that  they  were  princes  of  the  house 
of  Judah,  the  brethren  of  Ahaziah,'-  on  their  way  to 
see  the  two  kings  at  Jezreel,  and  to  salute  their  cousins, 
the  children  of  Jehoram,  and  their  kinsfolk  the  children 
of  Jezebel  the  Gebirah.^  The  answer  sealed  their  fate. 
Jehu  ordered  his  followers  to  take  them  alive.  At 
first  he  had  not  decided  what  he  would  do  with  them. 
But  half  measures  had  now  become  impossible.  This 
cavalcade  of  princes  little  knew  that  they  were  on  their 
way  to  greet  the  dead  children  of  a  dead  king  and  a 
dead  queen.  Jehu  felt  that  the  possibilities  of  an  end- 
less vendetta  must  be  quenched  in  blood.  He  gave 
orders  to  slay  them,  and  there  in  one  hour  forty-two 
more  scions  of  the  royal  houses  of  Judah  and  Israel 
were  done  to  death.*  With  the  usual  reckless  in- 
souciance of  the  East,  where  any  tank  or  well  is  made 
the  natural  receptacle  for  corpses  regardless  of  ultimate 
consequences,  their  bodies  were  flung  into  the  cistern 
of  the  shearing-house,  in  which  the  sheep  were  washed 
before  shearing,  just  as  the  bodies  of  Gedaliah's  fol- 
lowers were  flung  by  Ishmael  into  the  well  at  Mizpah, 
and  the  bodies  of  our  own  murdered  countrymen  were 

'  2  Kings  X.  12.  The  shephtrds'  House  of  Meeting  {Beth-equed- 
haroint).  LXX.,  ev  Bot^a/ca0  ;  Vulg.,  ad  camerani  pasiorum  ;  Aquila, 
oiKos  Ko./xi/'ews.  It  has  been  conjectured  by  Klostermann  that  it  be- 
longed to  the  Rechabites,  that  they  had  been  persecuted  by  Jezebel, 
and  that  they  were  glad  to  help  in  taking  vengeance  on  her  de- 
scendants. 

'^  The  Chronicler  (2  Chron,  xxii.  8)  says  "sows  of  the  brethren 
of  Ahaziah." 

*  LXX.,  71  ovvaareijovaa. 

*  2  Kings  X.  14,  A. v.,  "  at  the  pit."    Lit.,  "in  "  or  "into  the  cistern." 


X.  12-28]  THE  EXTIRPATION  OF  BAAL-WORSHIP        133 


flung  into  the  well  of  Cawnpore.     He   did  not  leave 
one  of  them  alive. 

Thus  Jehu  *'  murdered  two  kings,  and  one  hundred 
and  twelve  princes,  and  gave  Queen  Jezebel  to  dogs 
to  eat ;  and  if  priests  had  but  noticed  how  even  Hosea 
condemns  and  denounces  his  savagery,  they  would  have 
abstained  from  some  of  their  'glorifications  of  assassins 
and  butchers,  nor  would  they  have  appealed  to  this 
man's  hideous  example,  as  they  have  done,  to  excuse 
some  of  their  own  revolting  atrocities."  ^     But 

"  Crime  was  ne'er  so  black 
As  ghostly  cheer  and  pious  thanks  to  lack. 
Satan  is  modest.     At  heaven's  door  he  lays 
His  evil  offspring,  and  in  Scriptural  phrase 
And  saintly  posture  gives  to  God  the  praise 
And  honour  of  his  monstrous  progeny."^ 

One  cruel  deed  more  or  less  was  nothing  to  Jehu. 
Leaving  this  tank  choked  with  death  and  incarnadined 
with  ro3^al  blood,  he  went  on  his  way  as  if  nothing 
particular  had  happened.  He  had  not  proceeded  far 
when  he  saw  a  man  well  known  to  him,  and  of  a  spirit 
kindred  to  his  own.  It  was  the  Arab  ascetic  and 
Nazarite  Jehonadab,  the  son  of  Rechab  (or  "The 
Rider  "),  the  chief  of  the  tribe  of  Kenites  who  had  flung 
in  their  lot  with  the  children  of  Israel  since  the  days  of 
Moses^  It  was  the  tribe  which  had  produced  a  Jael ; 
and  Jehonadab  had  something  of  the  fierce,   fanatical 

'  See  Martin,  Hist,  de  France,  ix.  114. 

'  Whittier. 

^  Jer.  XXXV.  I-19.  Josephus  (Antt.,  IX.  vi,  6)  calls  him  "a  good 
man  and  a  just,  who  had  long  been  a  friend  of  Jehu."  "He  was," 
says  Ewald  {Gesch.,  iii.  S43),  "of  a  society  of  those  who  despaired 
of  being  able  to  observe  true  religion  undisturbedly  in  the  midst  of 
the  nation  with  the  stringency  with  which  they  understood  it,  and 
therefore  withdrew  into  the  desert." 


134  THE  bECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


spirit  of  the  ancient  chieftainess,  who,  in  her  own  tent, 
had  dashed  out  with  the  tent-peg  the  brains  of  Sisera. 
His  very  name,  "The  Lord  is  noble,"  indicated  that  he 
was  a  worshipper  of  Jehovah,  and  his  fierce  zeal  showed 
him  to  be  a  genuine  Kenite,  Disgusted  with  the 
wickedness  of  cities,  disgusted  above  all  with  the 
loathly  vice  of  drunkenness,  which,  as  we  see  from 
the  contemporary  prophets,  had  begun  in  this  age  to 
acquire  fresh  prominence  in  luxurious  and  wealthy 
communities,  he  exacted  of  his  sons  a  solemn  oath  that 
neither  they  nor  their  successors  would  drink  wine  nor 
strong  drink,  and  that,  shunning  the  squalor  and 
corruption  of  cities,  they  would  live  in  tents,  as  their 
nomad  ancestors  had  done  in  the  days  when  Jethro  and 
Hobab  were  princes  of  pastoral  Midian.  We  learn 
from  Jeremiah,  nearly  two  and  a  half  centuries  later, 
how  faithfully  that  oath  had  been  observed ;  and  how, 
in  spite  of  all  temptation,  the  vow  of  abstinence  was 
maintained,  even  when  the  strain  of  foreign  invasion 
had  driven  the  Rechabites  into  Jerusalem  from  their 
desolated  pastures.^ 

Jehu  knew  that  the  stern  fanaticism  of  the  Kenite 
Emir  would  rejoice  in  his  extirminating  zeal,  and  he 
recognised  that  the  friendship  and  countenance  of  this 
"  good  man  and  just,"  as  Josephus  calls  him,  would  add 
strength  to  his  cause,  and  enable  him  to  carry  out  his 
dark  design.     He  therefore  blessed  him.^ 

"  Is  thine  heart  right  with  my  heart,  as  my  heart  is 
with  thy  heart  ?  "  he  asked,  after  he  had  returned  the 
greeting  of  Jehonadab. 


'  Jer.  XXXV.  (written  about  b.c.  604).  Communities  of  Nazarites 
seem  to  have  sprung  up  at  this  epoch,  perhaps  as  a  protest  against 
the  prevailing  luxury  (Amos  ii.  11). 

-  In  Josephus  it  is  Jehonadab  who  blesses  the  king. 


X.  12-28.]  THE  EXTIRPATION  OF  BAAL-WORSHIP         135 

"  It  is,  it  is  !  "  answered  the  vehement  Rechabite.^ 

"Then  give  me  thy  hand,"  he  said;  and  grasping 
the  Arab  by  the  hand,^  he  pulled  him  up  into  his 
chariot — the  highest  distinction  he  could  bestow  upon 
him — and  bade  him  come  and  witness  his  zeal  for 
Jehovah. 

His  first  task  on  arriving*  at  Samaria  was  to  tear 
up  the  last  fibres  of  Ahab's  kith  and  destroy  all  his 
partisans.  This  was  indeed  to  push  to  a  self-interested 
extreme  the  denunciation  which  had  been  pronounced 
upon  Ahab ;  but  the  crime  helped  to  secure  his  fiercely 
founded  throne. 

One  deep-seated  plot  was  3^et  unaccomplished.  It 
was  the  total  extermination  of  Baal-worship.  To  drive 
out  for  ever  this  orgiastic,  corrupt,  and  alien  idolatry 
was  right ;  but  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  Jehu 
would  have  been  unable  to  effect  this  purpose  by  one 
stern  decree,  together  with  the  destruction  of  Baal's 
images  and  temple.  A  method  so  simply  righteous  did 
not  suit  this  Nero-Torquemada,  who  seemed  to  be  never 
happy  unless  he  united  Jesuitical  cunning  with  the 
pouring  out  of  rivers  of  massacre. 

He  summoned  tlie  people  together ;  and  as  though 
he  now  threw  off  all  pretence  of  zeal  for  orthodoxy, 
he  proclaimed  that  Ahab  had  served  Baal  a  little,  but 
Jehu  would  serve  him  much.  The  Samaritans  must 
have  been  endowed  with  infinite  gullibility  if  they 
could  suppose  that  the  king  who  had  ridden  into  the 
city  side  by  side  with  such  a  man  as  Jehonadab — "  the 
warrior  in  his  coat  of  mail,  the  ascetic  in  his  shirt  of 
hair" — who    had    already  exhibited    an    unfathomable 

'  Heb.,  t^;4  ^l 

^  Striking  hands  was  a  sign  of  good  faith  (Jobxvii.  3  ;  Prov.  xxii.  26). 


136  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

cunning,  and  had  swept  away  the  Baal-priests  of 
Jezreel,  was  indeed  sincere  in  this  new  conversion.^ 
Perhaps  they  felt  it  dangerous  to  question  the  sincerity 
of  kings.  The  Baal-worshippers  of  former  da3's  were 
known,  and  Jehu  proclaimed  that  if  any  one  of  them  was 
missing  at  the  great  sacrifice  which  he  intended  to  offer 
to  Baal  he  should  be  put  to  death.  A  solemn  assembly 
to  Baal  was  proclaimed,  and  every  apostate  from  God  to 
nature-worship  from  all  Israel  was  present,  till  the 
idol's  temple  was  thronged  from  end  to  end.^  To  add 
splendour  to  the  solemnity,  Jehu  bade  the  wardrobe- 
keeper  to  bring  out  all  the  rich  vestments-  of  Tyrian 
dye  and  Sidonian  broidery,  and  clothe  the  worshippers.^ 
Solemnly  advancing  to  the  altar  with  the  Rechabite  by 
his  side,  he  warned  the  assembly  to  see  that  their 
gathering  was  not  polluted  b}^  the  presence  of  a  single 
known  worshipper  of  Jehovah.  Then,  apparently,  he 
still  further  disarmed  suspicion  by  taking  a  personal 
part  in  offering  the  burnt-offering.  Meanwhile,  he  had 
surrounded  the  temple  and  blocked  every  exit  with 
eighty  armed   warriors,   and   had  threatened  that  any 

'  He  did  it  "in  subtilty "  (HSpy^).  This  substantive  occurs 
nowhere  else,  but  is  connected  with  the  name  Jacob.  LXX.,  ev 
■rrTepvL<rix(^,  "in  taking  by  the  heel,"  with  reference  to  the  name  Jacob, 
"snpplanter." 

-  Lit.,  "  mouth  to  mouth."     LXX.,  ffT6/j.a  es  (rrd/JLa. 

^  Ver.    22,     nnn?D.    Vestiarum,    occurs    here    only.     The   LXX. 

'  -  T    :  V  3  '  "^ 

omits  it  or  puts  it  in  Greek  letters.  Targum,  Kd/xirrpat,  "chests" 
Sil.  Italicus  (iii.  23)  describes  the  robes  of  the  priests  of  the 
Gaditanian  Hercules, — 

"  Nee  discolor  ulli, 
Ante  aras  citltiis  ;  vclantur  corpora  lino 
Et  Pelusiaco prcefulgel  stamine  vertex" 

Keil,  ad  loc. 
It  was   a  mixture  of  "the    rich    dye    of  Tyre    and  the    rich  web    of 
Nile." 


X.  12-28.]  THE  EXTIRPATION  OF  BAAL-IVORSHIP         137 


one  of  them  should  be  put  to  death  if  he  let  a  single 
Baal-worshipper  escape.  When  he  had  finished  the 
offering/  he  went  forth,  and  bade  his  soldiers  enter, 
and  slay,  and  slay,  and  slay  till  none  were  left.  Then 
flinging  the  corpses  in  a  heap,  the}^  made  their  way 
to  the  fortress  of  the  Temple,  where  some  of  the  priests 
may  have  taken  refuge.  The5^  dragged  out  and  burnt 
the  matstscboth  of  Baal,-  broke  down  the  great  central 
idol,  and  utterly  dismantled  the  whole  building.  To 
complete  the  pollution  of  the  dishallowed  shrine,  he 
made  it  a  common  midden  for  Samaria,  which  it  con- 
tinued to  be  for  centuries  afterwards.^  It  was  his  last 
voluntary  massacre.  The  House  of  Ahab  was  no 
.more.  Baal-worship  in  Israel  never  survived  that 
exterminating  blow. 

Happily  for  the  human  race,  such  atrocities  committed 
in  the  name  of  religion  have  not  been  common.  In 
Pagan  history  we  have  but  few  instances,  except  the 
slaughter  of  the  Magians  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign 
of  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes.  Alas  that  other  parallels 
should  be  furnished  by  the  abominable  tyranny  of  a 
false  Christianity,  blessed  and  incited  by  popes  and 
priests  1  The  persecutions  and  massacres  of  the  Albi- 
genses,  preached  by  Arnold  of  Citeaux,  and  instigated 
by  Pope  Innocent  III. ;  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from 
Spain  ;  the  deadly  work  of  Torquemada  ;  the  murderous 
furies  of  Alva  among  the  hapless  Netherlanders,  urged 
and  approved   by   Pope  Pius  V.  ;  the  massacre  of  St. 


'  The  phrase  may  be  impersonal,  "  when  one  \i.e.,  they]  had 
finished  the  sacrifice";  but  the  narrative  seems  to  imply  that  Jehu 
offered  it  himself  (LXX.,  toy  avviri\(.<Ta,v  TroioOcres  Tr\v  oKoko-vtmciv; 
Vulg.,  cum  coMipleium  esset  holocausiuni). 

■^  A. v.,  images;  R.V,,  pillars. 

^  Comp.  Ezra  vi.  11 ;  Dan.  ii.  5. 


138  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Bartholomew,  for  which  Pope  Gregory  and  his  cardinals 
sang  their  horrible  Te  Deum  in  their  desecrated  shrines, 
— these  are  the  parallels  to  the  deeds  of  Jehu.  He 
has  found  his  chief  imitators  among  the  votaries  of  a 
blood-stained  and  usurping  sacerdotalism,  which  has 
committed  so  many  crimes  and  inflicted  so  many 
horrors  on  mankind. 

And  did  God  approve  all  this  detestable  mixture  of 
zealous  enthusiasm  with  lying  deceit  and  the  insatiate 
thirst  of  blood  ? 

If  right  be  right,  and  wrong  be  wrong,  the  answer 
must  not  be  an  elaborate  subterfuge,  but  an  uncom- 
promising "  No  !  "  We  need  be  under  no  doubt  on  that 
subject.  Christ  Himself  reproved  His  Apostles  for 
savage  zealotry,  and  taught  them  that  the  Elijah-spirit 
was  not  the  Christ-spirit.  Nor  is  the  Elisha-spirit  the 
Christian  spirit  any  the  more  if  these  deeds  of  hypocrisy 
and  blood  were  in  an}'^  sense  approved  by  him  who  is 
sometimes  regarded  as  the  mild  and  gentle  Elisha. 
Where  was  he  ?  Why  was  he  silent  ?  Could  he 
possibly  approve  of  this  murderer's  fury  ?  We  do 
not,  indeed,  know  how  far  Elisha  lent  his  sanction  to 
anything  more  than  the  general  end.  Ahab's  house 
had  been  doomed  to  vengeance  by  the  voice  which 
gave  utterance  to  the  verdict  of  the  national  conscience. 
The  doom  was  just ;  Jehu  was  ordained  to  be  the 
executioner.  In  no  other  way  could  the  judgment  be 
carried  out.  The  times  were  not  sentimental.  The 
murder  of  Jehoram  was  not  regarded  as  an  act  of 
tyrannicide,  but  of  divinely  commissioned  justice. 
Elisha  may  have  shrunk  from  the  unreined  furies  of 
the  man  whom  he  had  sent  his  emissary  to  anoint. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  have  not  the  least  proof  that 
he  did  so.     He  partook,  prcbabl}',  of  the  wild  spirit  of 


X.  12-28.]  THE  EXTIRPATION  OF  BAAL-WORSHIP         139 


the  times,  when  such  deeds  were  regarded  with  feelings 
very  different  from  the  abhorrence  with  which  we, 
better  taught  by  the  spirit  of  love,  and  more  enlightened 
by  the  widening  dawn  of  history,  now  justly  regard 
them.  No  remonstrance  of  contemporary  prophecy, 
however  faint,  is  recorded  as  having  been  uttered 
against  the  doings  of  Jehu.  The  fact  that,  several 
centuries  later,  they  could  be  recorded  by  the  historian 
without  a  syllable  of  reprobation  shows  that  the  educa- 
tion of  nations  in  the  lessons  of  righteousness  is  slow, 
and  that  we  are  still  amid  the  annals  of  the  deep  night 
of  moral  imperfection.  But  the  nation  was  on  the  eve 
of  purer  teaching,  and  in  the  prophets  Amos  and  Hosea 
we  read  the  clear  condemnation  of  deeds  of  cruelty  in 
general,  and  specially  of  the  king  who  felt  no  pity. 
Amos  condemns  even  the  idolatrous  King  of  Edom, 
"  because  he  did  pursue  his  brother  with  the  sword, 
and  did  cast  off  all  pity,  and  his  anger  did  tear  per- 
petually, and  he  kept  his  wrath  for  ever."  ^  He  con- 
demns no  less  severely  the  Chemosh-worshipping  King 
of  Moab  even  for  an  insult  done  to  the  dead  :  **  Because 
he  burned  the  bones  of  the  King  of  Edom  into  lime."  ^ 
Jehu  had  warred  pitilessly  upon  the  living,  and  had 
shamelessly  insulted  the  dead.  He  had  flung  the  heads 
of  seventy  princes  in  two  bleeding  heaps  on  the  common 
road  for  all  eyes  to  stare  upon,  and  he  had  polluted 
the  cistern  of  Beth-equed-haroim  with  the  dead  bodies 
of  forty-two  youths  of  the  royal  house  of  Judah.  He 
might  plead  that  he  was  but  carrying  out  to  the  full 
the  commission  of  Jehovah,  imposed  upon  him  by 
Elisha ;  but  Hosea,  a  century  later,  gives  God's  message 
against  his  house  :  "  Yet  a  little  while,  and  I  will  avenge 

'  Amos  i.  II.  -  Amos  ii.  I. 


I40  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

the  blood  of  Jezreel  upon  the  house  of  Jehu,  and  will 
cause  to  cease  the  kingdom  of  the  house  of  Israel."^ 

Nay,  more  1  If,  as  is  possible,  the  ghastly  story  of 
the  siege  of  Samaria,  narrated  in  the  memoirs  of  Elisha, 
is  displaced,  and  if  it  really  belongs  to  the  reign  of 
Jehoahaz  ben-Jehu,  then  Elisha  himself  brands  the 
cruelty  of  the  rushing  thunderbolt  of  vengeance  which 
his  own  hand  had  launched.  For  he  calls  the  unnamed 
"  King  of  Israel  "  "  the  son  of  a  murderer." 

Men  who  are  swords  of  God,  and  human  executioners 
of  Divine  justice,  may  easily  deceive  themselves.  God 
works  the  ends  of  His  own  providence,  and  He  uses 
their  ministry.  "  The  fierceness  of  man  shall  turn  to 
Thy  praise,  and  the  fierceness  of  them  shalt  Thou 
refrain."^  But  they  can  never  make  their  plea  of  pro- 
phetic sanction  a  cloak  of  maliciousness.  Cromwell  had 
stern  work  to  do.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  he  deemed  it 
inevitable,  and  did  not  shrink  from  it.  But  he  hated  it. 
Over  and  over  again,  he  tells  us,  he  had  prayed  to  God 
that  He  would  not  put  him  to  this  work.  To  the  best 
of  his  power  he  avoided,  he  minimised,  every  act  of 
vengeance,  even  when  the  sternness  of  his  Puritan  sense 
of  righteousness  made  him  look  on  it  as  duty.  Far 
different  was  the  case  of  Jehu.  He  loved  murder  and 
cunning  for  their  own  sakes,  and,  like  Joab,  he  dyed 
the  garments  of  peace  with  the  blood  of  war. 

Hov/  little  was  his  gain  !  It  had  been  happier  for 
him  if  he  had  never  mounted  higher  than  the  captaincy 
of  the  host,  or  even  so  high.  He  reigned  for  twenty- 
eight  years  (842-814) — longer  than  any  king  except  his 
great-grandson  Jeroboam  II,  ;  and  in  recognition  of  any 
element  of  righteousness  which  had  actuated  his  revolt, 


Hos.  i.  4.  "  Psalm  Ixxvi.  lo. 


X.  12-28.]   THE  EXTIRPATION  OF  BAAL-WORSHIP         141 


his  children,  even  to  the  fourth  generation,  were  suffered 
to  sit  upon  the  throne.  His  dynasty  lasted  for  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  years.^  But  his  own  reign  was 
only  memorable  for  defeat,  trouble,  and  irreparable 
disaster. 

For  Hazael,  who  had  seized  the  throne  of  his  mur- 
dered lord  Benhadad,  was  a-  fierce  and  able  warrior. 
He  held  his  own  against  the  overweening  might  of  his 
northern  neighbour  Assyria  ;  and  whenever  he  obtained 
a  respite  from  this  desperate  warfare,  he  indemnified 
himself  for  all  losses  by  enlarging  his  dominion  out  of 
the  territories  of  the  Ten  Tribes.  "In  those  days  the 
Lord  began  to  cut  Israel  short,  and  Hazael  smote  them 
in  all  the  borders  of  Israel."  Jehu  had  the  mortification 
of  seeing  the  fairest  and  most  fruitful  regions  of  his 
dominion,  those  which  had  belonged  to  Israel  from  the 
most  ancient  times,  wrenched  out  of  his  grasp.  From 
this  time  forwards  Israel  lost  half  the  fair  Promised 
Land  which  God  had  given  to  their  fathers.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  the  end.  Henceforth  the  tribal  inherit- 
ance of  Reuben,  Gad,  and  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh 
was  an  oppressed  dependency  of  Aram.  Hazael  over- 
ran and  annexed  the  land  of  Bashan  from  the  spurs 
of  Mount  Hermon  to  the  Lake  of  Gennezareth  ;  Gaulan, 
and  volcanic  Argob,  and  Hauran  the  entire  ancient 
kingdom  of  Og,  King  of  Bashan,  with  all  the  herds  and 
pasture-lands.  Southward  of  this  he  seized  the  whole 
forest-clad  plateau  of  Gilead,  with  its  lovely  ravines, 
north  of  the  Jabbok,  the  territory  of  Gad  ;  and  pushing 

'  Jehu 842 — 814. 

Jehoahaz   814 — 797. 

Toash 797—781. 

Jeroboam  II.         ,         ,         ,         .  781 — 740. 

Zechariah 74*^* 


142  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


still  southward,  established  his  sway  over  the  district, 
of"  the  Ammonites  and  the  tribe  of  Reuben,  as  far  as 
the  city  of  Aroer,  on  the  other  side  of  the  great  chasm 
of  Arnon  (Wady  Mojib).  All  the  fatness  of  Bashan 
and  Rabbah  with  her  watery  plain  of  the  Beni-Ammon, 
and  the  grass-covered  uplands  which  fed  the  enormous 
flocks  of  Mesha,  the  great  Emir  and  sheep-master  of 
Moab,  passed  from  Israel  to  Syria,  never  to  be  recovered. 
What  made  the  humiliation  more  terrible  was  that  the 
invasion  and  conquest  were  accompanied  with  acts  of 
unwonted  cruelty.  Elisha  had  wept  to  think  what 
evil  Hazael  would  do  the  children  of  Israel  ^ — how  he 
would  set  their  strongholds  on  fire,  and  slay  their 
young  men  with  the  sword,  and  dash  in  pieces  their 
little  ones,  and  rip  up  their  women  with  child.  These 
atrocities  were  in  those  horrible  days  the  ordinary 
incidents  of  warfare ;  ^  but  Hazael  seems  to  have  been 
pre-eminent  in  brutal  fierceness.  It  was  this  which 
called  down  on  him  and  his  people  the  "  burdens " 
of  Amos.  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord ;  For  three  trans- 
gressions of  Damascus,  and  for  four,  I  will  not  turn 
away  the  punishment  thereof;  because  they  have 
threshed  Gilead  with  threshing  instruments  of  iron  : 
but  I  will  send  a  fire  into  the  house  of  Hazael,  which 
shall  devour  the  palaces  of  Benhadad."^ 

We  can  imagine  rather  than  describe  the  anguish 
of  Jehu  when  he  was  compelled  to  look  impotently  on, 
while  his  powerful  Syrian  neighbour  laid  waste  his 
dominion  with  fire  and  sword,  and  the  cry  of  his 
despoiled  and  slaughtered  subjects  was  uplifted  to  him 
in  vain.     Nor  was  this  all.     Emboldened  by  these  re- 

'  2  Kings  viii.  I2. 

^  Isa.  xiii.  ii— 16;  Hos.  x.  14,  xiii.  16;  Nah.  iii.  10. 

^  Amos  i.  3,  4. 


X.  12-28.]  THE  EXTIRPATION  OF  BAAL-WORSHIP         I43 


verses,  a  host  of  other  enemies,  once  subjugated  and 
despised,  began  to  wreak  their  revenge  and  insolence 
on  humbled  Israel.  The  Philistines  eagerly  undertook 
the  sale  of  the  wretched  captives  who  were  brought 
to  them  in  gangs  from  the  burnt  Trans-Jordanic  towns.^ 
The  old  "brotherly  covenant"  with  the  Tyrian,  which  had 
once  been  formed  by  Solomon,  and  had  been  cemented 
by  the  marriage  of  Jezebel  with  Ahab,  was  cancelled 
by  Jehu's  insults,  and  the  Tyrians  emulously  outbad  the 
PhiHstines  in  the  purchase  of  Israelitish  slaves.  The 
Edomites  and  the  Ammonites  also  helped  Hazael  in  his 
marauding  raids,  and  enlarged  their  own  domains  at 
the  expense  of  Samaria.  Such  insults  and  humiliations 
might  well  go  far  to  break  the  heart  of  an  impetuous 
and  warrior-king. 

Of  Jehu  the  Books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  have 
no  more  to  tell  us,  but  we  gain  fresh  insight  into  his 
degradation  from  the  Black  Obelisk  of  Shalmaneser  II. 
(860-824),  now  in  the  British  Museum.  From  the 
inscription  we  find  that,  in  842,  Jehu — "  the  son  of 
Omri,"  as  he  is  erroneously  called — was  one  of  the 
vassal  kings  who  subjected  themselves  to  the  Assyrian 
conqueror,*  and  sent  him  tribute,  which  may  have 
euphemistically  passed    under    the   name   of  presents. 


'  Amos  i.  6-15. 

-  See  Appendix  I.,  Schrader,  Keilinschriften  it.  das  Alte  Test., 
208  ff.  ;  Sayce.  Records  of  the  Past,  v.  41  ;  Layard,  Nineveh,  p.  613; 
Rawlinson,  Herodotus,  i,  469.  He  is  twice  mentioned  in  inscriptions 
of  Shalmaneser  II.  (861-825).  He  is  called  Ja-hu-a,  son  of  Omri. 
The  name  of  Omri  was  familiar  in  Nineveh ;  for  Ahab  had  fought  as 
a  vassal  of  Assyria  at  the  battle  of  Karkar,  and  Samaria  was  called 
Beth-Khumri.  Shalmaneser  would  not  trouble  himself  with  the 
fact  that  Jehu  had  extirpated  the  old  dynasty.  His  black  stele  was 
found  by  Layard,  and  is  figured  in  Monuments  of  Nineveh,  \.,  pi.  53, 
The  name  of  Jehu  was  first  deciphered  by  Dr.  Hincks  in  1851. 


144  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

The  despot  of  Nineveh  twice  speaks  of  it  as  a  tribute. 
On  this  obehsk  we  see  a  picture  of  Jehu's  ambassadors 
— perhaps  of  Jehu  himself.  On  the  left  stands  the 
Assyrian  King  with  the  winged  circle  over  his  head.  He 
holds  a  beaker  of  wine  in  his  hand,  and  two  eunuchs 
stand  behind  him,  one  of  whom  covers  him  with  a 
sunshade.  Before  him  kneels  and  grovels  in  adoration 
the  Jewish  King,  with  his  beard  sweeping  the  ground. 
In  long  array  behind  him  come  his  servants — first  two 
eunuchs,  then  a  number  of  bearded  figures,  who  carry 
the  tribute.  They  are  dressed  in  long  richly  fringed 
robes,  exactly  resembling  those  of  the  Assyrians  them- 
selves, and  they  wear  shoes  which  turn  up  at  the  toes. 
They  are  carrying  figures  of  gold  and  silver,  goblets, 
golden  vessels,  ingots  of  precious  metals,  spear-shafts, 
a  kingly  sceptre,  baskets,  bags,  and  trays  of  treasure, 
the  contribution  of  which  must  have  fallen  with  crushing 
weight  on  the  impoverished  kingdom.^ 

This  tribute  must  have  been  sent  in  842,  the 
eighteenth  year  of  Shalmaneser  II.'s  reign.  Doubtless 
Jehu  thought  he  might  be  delivered  from  his  furious 
neighbour  Hazael  by  propitiating  the  Northern  tyrant, 
who  at  the  same  time  received  the  submission  of  the 
Tyrians  and  Sidonians.  But  if  so,  Jehu's  hopes  were 
dashed  to  the  ground.  Shalmaneser  was  the  enemy 
of  Hazael  (Ha-sa-ilu),  who  had  gone  out  to  meet  him 
at  Antilibanus,  and  there  had  fought  a  desperate  battle. 
The  Syrian  King  was  routed,  and  driven  back,  and 
Shalmaneser  had  besieged  Damascus.  But  he  had 
failed  to  take  it,  and  indeed  had  not  troubled  Syria 
again  till  832,  when  he  made  an  excursion  of  minor 
importance.     His   troubles  on    the  north   and   east  of 

'  Schrader  (E,  T.),  ii.  199. 


X.  12-28.]  THE  EXTIRPATION  OF  BAAL-WORSHIP        145 

Assyria  had  diverted  his  attention  from  Damascus ; 
and  this,  together  with  the  inferiority  of  his  son 
Samsiniras  {d.  811),  had  given  Hazael  a  free  hand  to 
avenge  himself  on  Israel  as  the  ally  of  Assyria.  Of 
Jehu  we  hear  no  more.  After  his  long  reign  of  twenty- 
eight  years  he  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  was  buried 
in  Samaria,  and  Jehoahaz  hi»  son  reigned  in  his  stead. 
Savage  as  had  been  his  measures,  his  victory  over 
alien  idolatries  was  by  no  means  complete.  What 
Micah  calls  "  the  statutes  of  Omri,  and  the  works  of 
the  House  of  Ahab,"  ^  were  still  kept ;  and  men,  both  in 
Israel  and  Judah,  walked  in  their  old  sins.  Even  in 
the  reign  of  Jehu's  own  son  Jehoahaz  there  still 
remained  in  Samaria  the  Asherah,  or  tree  consecrated 
to  the  nature-goddess,  which  Jehu  seems  to  have  put 
away,  but  not  to  have  destroyed.^  As  he  grovelled  in 
the  dust  before  Shalmaneser,  did  no  memory  of  his 
own  ferocities  darken  his  humiliated  soul  ?  Must  not 
he,  like  our  Henry  H.,  have  been  inclined  to  utter  the 
wailing  cry,  "  ShamiC,  shame  on  a  conquered  king  !  " 

'  Mic.  vi.  16,  ''■  2  Kings  xiii.  6. 


10 


CHAPTER   XIV 

ATHALIAH  (b.c.   842— 836)— /0.4S//  BEN-AHAZIAH  OF 
JUDAH  (B.C.   836—796) 

2  Kings  xi.  i — xii.  21 

"  Par  cette  fin  terrible,   et  due  a  ses  forfaits, 
Apprenez,  Roi  des  Juifs,  et  n'oubliez  jamais, 
Que  les  rois  dans  le  ciel  ont  un  juge  severe, 
L'innocence  un  vengfeur,  et  les  orphelins  un  pere  !  " 

Racine,  Athalie. 

"  Regardless  of  the  sweeping  whirlwind's  sway. 
That,  hushed  in  grim  repose,  expects  its  evening  prey." 

Gray. 

BEFORE  we  follow  the  destinies  of  the  House 
of  Jehu  we  must  revert  to  Judah,  and  watch 
the  final  consequences  of  ruin  which  came  in  the  train 
of  Ahab's  Tyrian  marriage,  and  brought  murder  and 
idolatry  into  Judah,  as  well  as  into  Israel. 

Athaliah,  who,  as  queen-mother,  was  more  powerful 
than  the  queen-consort  (malekkah),  was  the  true 
daughter  of  Jezebel.  She  exhibits  the  same  undaunted 
fierceness,  the  same  idolatrous  fanaticism,  the  same 
swift  resolution,  the  same  cruel  and  unscrupulous 
wickedness. 

It  might  have  been  supposed  that  the  miserable 
disease  of  her  husband  Jehoram,  followed  so  speedily 
by  the  murder,  after  one  year's  reign,  of  her  son 
Ahaziah,  might  have  exercised  over  her  character  the 

146 


xi.  i-xii.  21.]  ATHALIAH  147 

softening  influence  of  misfortune.  On  the  contrary,  she 
only  saw  in  these  events  a  short  path  to  the  consum- 
mation of  her  ambition. 

Under  Jehoram  she  had  been  queen  :  under  Ahaziah 
she  had  exercised  still  more  powerful  influence  as 
Gebirah,  and  had  asserted  her  sway  alike  over  her 
husband  and  over  her  son,  whose  counsellor  she  was 
to  do  wickedly.  It  was  far  from  her  intention  tamely 
to  sink  from  her  commanding  position  into  the  abject 
nullity  of  an  aged  and  despised  dowager  in  a  dull 
provincial  seraglio.     She  even  thought  that 

"To  reign  is  worth  ambition,  though  in  hell; 
Better  to  reign  in  hell  than  serve  in  heaven." 

The  royal  family  of  the  House  of  David,  numerous 
and  flourishing  as  it  once  was,  had  recently  been 
decimated  by  cruel  catastrophes.  Jehoram,  instigated 
probably  by  his  heathen  wife,  had  killed  his  six  younger 
brothers.^  Later  on,  the  Arabs  and  Philistines,  in  their 
insulting  invasion,  had  not  only  plundered  his  palace, 
but  had  carried  away  his  sons ;  so  that,  according  to 
the  Chronicler,  "  there  was  never  a  son  left  him,  save 
Jehoahaz  [i.e.,  Ahaziah],  the  youngest  of  his  sons."  ^ 
He  may  have  had  other  sons  after  that  invasion ;  and 
Ahaziah  had  left  children,  who  must  all,  however,  have 
been  very  young,  since  he  was  only  twenty-two  or 
twenty-three  when  Jehu's  servants  murdered  him. 
Athaliah  might  naturally  have  hoped  for  the  regency ; 
but  this  did  not  content  her.  When  she  saw  that  her 
son  Ahaziah  was  dead,  "  she  arose  and  destroyed  all  the 
seed  royal."  In  those  daj's  the  life  of  a  child  was  but 
little  thought  of;  and  it  weighed  less  than  nothing  with 
Athaliah  that  these  innocents  were  her  grandchildren. 

'   2  Chron.  xxi.  2-4.  -  2  Chron.  xxi.  1 7. 


148  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


She  killed  all  of  whose  existence  she  was  aware,  and 
boldly  seized  the  crown.  No  queen  had  ever  reigned 
alone  either  in  Israel  or  in  Judah.  Judah  must  have 
sunk  very  low,  and  the  talents  of  Athaliah  must  have 
been  commanding,  or  she  could  never  have  established 
a  precedent  hitherto  undreamed  of,  by  imposing  on  the 
people  of  David  for  six  years  the  yoke  of  a  woman,  and 
that  woman  a  half-Phoenician  idolatress.  Yet  so  it  was  I 
Athaliah,  like  her  cousin  Dido,  felt  herself  strong  enough 
to  rule. 

But  a  woman's  ruthlessness  was  outwitted  by  a 
woman's  cunning.  Ahaziah  had  a  half-sister  on  the 
father's  side/  the  princess  Jehosheba,  or  Jehoshabeath, 
who  was  then  or  afterwards  (v/e  are  told)  married  to 
Jehoiada,  the  high  priest.-^  The  secrets  of  harems  are 
hidden  deep,  and  Athaliah  may  have  been  purposely 
kept  in  ignorance  of  the  birth  to  Ahaziah  of  a  little 
babe  whose  mother  was  Zibiah  of  Beersheba,  and  who 
had  received  the  name  of  Joash.  If  she  knew  of  his 
existence,  some  ruse  must  have  been  palmed  off  upon 
her,  and  she  must  have  been  led  to  believe  that  he  too 
had  been  killed.  But  he  had  not  been  killed.  Jehosheba 
"  stole  him  from  among  the  king's  sons  that  were  slain," 
and,  with  the  connivance  of  his  nurse,  hid  him  from  the 
murderers  sent  by  Athaliah  in  the  palace  store-room 
in  which  beds  and  couches  were  kept.^  Thence,  at  the 
first  favourable  moment,  she  transferred  the  child  and 
nurse  to  one  of  the  chambers  in  the  three  storeys  of 


'  bpLovdrpios  dSeX^i?  (Jos.). 

■  2  Chron.  xxii.  il.  There  are  iindoubted  difficulties  about  the 
statement  (see  infra).  There  is  no  other  instance  of  the  marriage 
of  a  princess  with  a  priest. 

'^  Jos.,  Antt.,  IX.  vii.  l  :  ro  rajxi-uov  tCjv  kKlvCjv.  The  chamber  of  beds 
was  a  sort  of  unoccnpitd  wardrobe-room. 


xi.  i-xii.  21.]  ATHALIAH  149 


chambers    which    ran    round    the    1  em  pie,    and    were 
variously  used  as  wardrobes  or  as  dwelling-rooms. 

The  hiding-place  was  safe  ;  for  under  Athaliah  the 
Temple  of  Jehovah  fell  into  neglect  and  disrepute,  and 
its  resident  ministers  would  not  be  numerous.  It  would 
not  have  been  difficult,  in  the  seclusion  of  Eastern  life, 
for  Jehosheba  to  pass  off  the  babe  as  her  own  child 
to  all  but  the  handful  who  knew  the  secret. 

Six  years  passed  away,  and  the  iron  hand  of  Athaliah 
still  kept  the  people  in  subjection.  She  had  boldly 
set  up  in  Judah  her  mother's  Baal-worship.  Baal  had 
his  temple  not  far  from  that  of  Jehovah ;  and  though 
Athaliah  did  not  imitate  Jezebel  in  persecuting  the 
worshippers  of  Jehovah,  she  made  her  ov/n  high  priest, 
Mattan,  a  much  more  important  person  than  Jehoiada 
for  all  who  desired  to  propitiate  the  favours  of  the  Court. 

Joash  had  now  reached  his  seventh  year,  and  a 
Jewish  prince  in  his  seventh  year  is  regarded  as  some- 
thing more  than  a  mere  child.  Jehoiada  thought  that 
it  was  time  to  strike  a  blow  in  his  favour,  and  to 
deliver  him  from  the  dreadful  confinement  which  made 
it  impossible  for  him  to  leave  the  Temple  precincts. 

He  began  secretly  to  tamper  with  the  guards  both 
of  the  Temple  and  of  the  palace.  Upon  the  Levitic 
guards,  indignant  at  the  intrusion  of  Baal-worship, 
he  might  securely  count,  and  the  Carites  and  queen's 
runners  were  not  likely  to  be  very  much  devoted  to 
the  rule  of  the  manlike  and  idolatrous  alien-queen. 
Taking  an  oath  of  them  in  secrec}',  he  bound  them  to 
allegiance  to  the  little  boy  whom  he  produced  from  the 
Temple  chamber  as  their  lawful  lord,  and  the  son  of 
their  late  king. 

The  plot  was  well  laid.     There  were  five  captains 
of  the  five  hundred  royal  body-guards,  and  the  priest 


ISO  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


secretly  enlisted  them  all  in  the  service.^  The  Chronicler 
says  that  he  also  sent  round  to  all  the  chief  Levites, 
and  collected  them  in  Jerusalem  for  the  emergency. 
The  arrangements  of  the  Sabbath  gave  special  facility 
to  his  plans ;  for  on  that  day  only  one  of  the  five 
divisions  of  guards  mounted  watch  at  the  palace,  and 
the  others  were  set  free  for  the  service  of  the  Temple.'-^ 
It  had  evidently  been  announced  that  some  great 
ceremony  would  be  held  in  the  shrine  of  Jehovah ;  for 
all  the  people,  we  are  told,  were  assembled  in  the  courts 
of  the  house  of  the  Lord.  Jehoiada  ordered  one  of  the 
companies  to  guard  the  palace ;  another  to  be  at  the 
"gate  Sur,"  or  the  gate  "  of  the  Foundation  "  ;^  another 
at  the  gate  behind  the  barracks  (?)  of  the  palace-runners, 
to  be  a  barrier*  against  any  incursion  from  the  palace. 
Two  more  were  to  ensure  the  safety  of  the  little  king 
by  watching  the  precincts  of  the  Temple.  The  Levitic 
officers  were  to  protect  the  king's  person  with  serried 
ranks.  Jehoiada  armed  them  with  spears  and  shields, 
which  David  had  placed  as  trophies  in  the  porch  ;  and 
if  any  one  tried  to  force  his  way  within  their  lines  he 
was  to  be  slain.  The  only  danger  to  be  apprehended 
was  from  any  Carite  mercenaries,  or  palace-servants 
of  the  queen  :  among  all  others  Jehoiada  found  a  wide- 
spread defection.  The  people,  the  Levites,  even  the 
soldiers,  all  hated  the  Baal-worshipping  usurper." 
At  the  fateful  moment  the  guards  were  arranged  in 

'  2  Kings  xi.  4  :  "  The  centurions  of  the  Carians  and  of  the  runners." 

-  This  is  the  second  time  that  the  word  "Sabbath"  occurs,  or  that 
the  institution  is  alluded   to,  in  the  history  of  either  monarchy. 

'  Nothing  is  known  of  n-1D,  Sur,  or  TtD^  ysod,  the  Foundation 
(2  Chron.  xxiii.  5).  Thej'  are  not  mentioned  elsewhere.  LXX.,  iv  ry 
TT^Xri  tGiv  oSQv,  and  (in  Chronicles)  iv  t-q  tti^Xt;  ttj  fiicT]. 

■*  Not  as  in  A.V.,  "that  it  be  not  broken  down." 

^  In  reading  side  by  side  the  narratives  in  the  Books  of  Kings  and 


xi.  1-xii.  21.]     JOASH  BEN-AHAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  151 


two  dense  lines,  beginning  from  either  side  of  the  porch, 
till  their  ranks  met  beyond  the  altar,  so  as  to  form  a 
hedge  round  the  royal  boy.  Into  this  triangular  space 
the  young  prince  was  led  by  the  high  priest,  and  placed 
beside  the  Matstsebah — some  prominent  pillar  in  the 
Temple  court,  either  one  of  Solomon's  pillars  Jachin 
and  Boaz,  or  some  special  erection  of  later  days.^ 
Round  him  stood  the  princes  of  Judah,  and  there,  in 
the  midst  of  them,  Jehoiada  placed  the  crown  upon  his 
head,  and  in  significant  symbol  also  laid  lightly  upon 
it  for  a  moment  "  The  Testimony  " — perhaps  the  Ten 
Commandments  and  the  Book  of  the  Covenant — the 
most  ancient  fragment  of  the  Pentateuch  ^ — which  was 
treasured  up  with  the  pot  of  manna  inside  or  in  front 
of  the  Ark.  Then  he  poured  on  the  child's  head  the 
consecrated  oil,  and  said,   "  Let  the  king  live  !  " 

The  completion  of  the  ceremony  was  marked  by  the 
blare  of  the  rams'  horns,  the  softer  blast  of  the  silver 
trumpets,  and  the  answering  shouts  of  the  soldiers  and 
the  people.     The   tumult,   or  the   news   of  it,   reached 


Chronicles  (2  Chron.  xxiii.),  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
the  main  anxiety  of  the  Chronicler  is  to  leave  the  impression  that  the 
work  in  the  Temple  was  chiefly  done  by  the  Levites,  and  that  the 
sacred  precincts  were  not  polluted  by  the  presence  of  alien  troops. 
He  evidently  stumbled  at  the  notion,  conve3'ed  by  the  older  narrative, 
that  Carians  and  suchlike  semi-heathen  mercenaries  should  have 
stood  by  the  altar  at  a  high  priest's  command;  so  he  substitutes 
Levites  for  guardsmen,  and  the  profane  laymen  are  relegated  outside. 
In  details  the  two  accounts  are  only  reconcilable  by  a  special  pleading 
which  would  reconcile  any  discrepancy. 

'   I  Kings  vii.  21.     Comp.,  however,  2  Kings  xxiii.  3. 

^  See  Exod.  xxv,  16,  21,  xvi.  34.  n-inyn  (see  2  Chron.  xxiii.  II). 
Kimchi  takes  it  to  mean  "a  royal  robe,"  and  other  Rabbis  a  ph)-- 
lactery  on  the  coronet  (Deut.  vi.  8).  In  the  Targum  to  Chronicles 
it  is  explained  to  mean  the  costly  jewel  (2  Sam.  xii.  30),  of  which 
none  but  a  descendant  of  David  could  bear  the  weight.  For  hdedoih 
Klostcrmann  therefore  suggests  hals'adoth,   "the  royal  bracelets." 


152  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

the  ears  of  Athaliah  in  the  neighbouring  palace,  and, 
with  all  the  undaunted  courage  of  her  mother,  she 
instantly  summoned  her  escort,  and  went  into  the 
Temple  to  see  for  herself  what  was  taking  place/  She 
probably  mounted  the  ascent  which  Solomon  had  made 
from  the  palace  to  the  Temple  court,  though  it  had  long 
been  robbed  of  its  precious  metals  and  scented  woods. 
She  led  the  way,  and  thought  to  overawe  by  her  personal 
ascendency  any  irregularity  which  might  be  going 
on  ;  for  in  the  deathful  hush  to  which  she  had  reduced 
her  subjects  she  does  not  seem  to  have  dreamt  of 
rebellion.  No  sooner  had  she  entered  than  the  guards 
closed  behind  her,  excluding  and  menacing  her  escort.^ 

A  glance  was  sufficient  to  reveal  to  her  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  whole  scene.  There,  in  royal  robes,  and 
crowned  with  the  royal  crown,  stood  her  little  unknown 
grandson  beside  the  Matstsehah^  v/hile  round  him  were 
the  leaders  of  the  people  and  the  trumpeters,  and  the 
multitudes  were  still  rolling  their  tumult  of  acclamation 
from  the  court  below.  In  that  sight  she  read  her  doom. 
Rending  her  clothes,  she  turned  to  fly,  shrieking, 
"  Treason  !  treason  !  "  Then  the  commands  of  the 
priest  rang  out :  "  Keep  her  between  the  ranks,*  till 
you  have  got  her  outside  the  area  of  the  Temple  ;  and 
if  any  of  her  guards  follow  or  try  to  rescue  her,  kill 
him  with  the  sword.  But  let  not  the  sacred  courts 
be  polluted  with  her  blood."     So  they  made  way  for 


'  So  says  Josephus  (yuera  t^j  f5/aj  ffTpartas),  and  it  is  certain  that 
she  would  hardly  go  unattended. 

-  Jos.,  Antt.,  IX.  vii.  3  :  Toi>s  5^  iwofiiuovs  cTrMras  elp^av  elaeXOeZv. 

^  The  meaning  of  al-haamod  is  uncertain  (A.V.,  "  by  a  pillar  "  ; 
Vulg.,  "  on  the  tribunal  ").  Comp.  2  Kings  xxiii.  3  ;  2  Chron.  xxiii.  13  ; 
I  Kings  viii.  22;  2  Chron.  vi.  13. 

■*  2  Kings  xi.  15.  Not  as  in  A.V.,  "without  the  ranges."  Heb., 
lash'de'roth ;  LXX.,  ^auidev  tQv  craSripwO. 


xi.  i-xii.2i.]     JOASH  BEN-AHAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  153 


her/  and  as  she  could  not  escape  she  passed  between 
the  rows  of  Levites  and  soldiers  till  she  had  reached 
the  private  chariot-road  by  which  the  kings  drove  to 
the  precincts.^  There  the  sword  of  vengeance  fell. 
Athaliah  disappears  from  history,  and  with  her  the 
dark  race  of  Jezebel.  But  her  story  lives  in  the  music 
of  Handel  and  the  verse  of  Racine. 

This  is  the  only  recorded  revolution  in  the  history 
of  Judah.  In  two  later  cases  a  king  of  Judah  was 
murdered,  but  in  both  instances  "  the  people  of  the 
land  "  restored  the  Davidic  heir.  Life  in  Judah  was 
less  dramatic  and  exciting  than  in  Israel,  but  far  more 
stable  ;  ^  and  this,  together  with  comparative  immunity 
from  foreign  invasions,  constituted  an  immense  advan- 
tage. 

Jehoiada,  of  course,  became  regent  for  the  young 
king,  and  continued  to  be  his  guide  for  many  years, 
so  that  even  the  king's  two  wives  were  selected  by 
his  advice.  As  the  nation  had  been  distracted  with 
idolatries,  he  made  the  covenant  between  the  king  and 
the  people  that    they  should   be  loyal   to    each  other, 

'  A. v.,  "  And  they  laid  hands  on  her  " ;  LXX.,  eiri^oKov  oi'tt; 
;^e7/)aj ;  Vulg.,  iniposuerunt  ei  manus.  But  R.V.  as  in  the  text,  follow- 
ing the  Targum,  and  the  Jewish  commentators,  "They  made  for  her 
two  sides." 

^  This  is  usually  understood  to  be  the  "horse  gate  "  of  the  city 
(Neh.  iii.  28),  and  so  Josephus  seems  to  have  taken  it,  for  he  says 
that  Athaliah  was  killed  in  "  the  Kedron  Valley."  Canon  Rawlinson 
says  that  it  was  more  probably  in  the  Tyropceon  Valley.  But  there 
could  have  been  no  object  in  dragging  the  wretched  queen  all  this 
way.  Jehoiada  was  only  anxious  that  she  should  not  stain  the 
Temple  with  her  blood,  and  "  the  way  by  which  the  horses  came  into 
the  king's  house"  seems  to  be  some  private  palace-gate.  We  are 
expressly  told  (ver.  16)  that-Athaliah  was  slain  "  at  the  king's  house," 
probably  in  "the  king's  garden  "  (2  Kings  xxv.  4). 

'  Wellhauscn,  Isr.  aiidjnd.,  p.  96. 


154  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


and  between  Jehoiada  and  the  king  and  the  people  that 
they  should  be  Jehovah's  people.  Such  covenants  were 
not  infrequent  in  Jewish  history.  Such  a  covenant 
had  been  made  by  Asa  ^  after  Abijam's  apostasy,  as  it 
was  afterwards  made  by  Hezekiah  '^  and  by  Josiah.^  The 
new  covenant,  and  the  sense  of  awakenment  from  the 
dream  of  guilty  apostasy,  evoked  an  outburst  of  spon- 
taneous enthusiasm  in  the  hearts  of  the  populace.  Of 
their  own  impulse  they  rushed  to  the  temple  of  Baal 
which  Athaliah  had  reared,  dismantled  it,  and  smashed 
to  pieces  his  altars  and  images.  The  riot  was  only 
stained  by  a  single  murder.  They  slew  Mattan, 
Athaliah's  Baal-priest,  before  the  altars  of  his  god.* 

With  Jehoiada  begins  the  title  of  ''high  priest." 
Hitherto  no  higher  name  than  "  the  priest "  had  been 
given  even  to  Aaron,  or  Eli,  or  Zadok ;  but  thenceforth 
the  title  of  "  chief  priest "  is  given  to  his  successors, 
among  whom  he  inaugurated  a  new  epoch.*^ 

It  was  now  Jehoiada's  object  to  restore  such  splendour 
and  solemnity  as  he  could  to  the  neglected  worship  of 
the  Temple,  which  had  suffered  in  every  way  from 
Baal's  encroachments.  He  did  this  before  the  king's 
second  solemn  inauguration.  Even  the  porters  had 
been  done  away  with,  so  that  the  Temple  could  at  any 
time  be  polluted  by  the  presence  of  the  unclean,  and 


'  2  Chron.  xv.  9-15. 

*  2  Chron.  xxix.  10. 

*  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  31. 

*  The  name  is  perhaps  an  abbreviation  from  Mattan-Baal,  "  gift  of 
Baal."  Comp.  "  Methumballes  "  (Plant).  The  names  of  Tyrian  kings, 
Mitinna,  Mattiin,  occur  in  inscriptions  of  Tiglath-Pilescr  II.  See 
Herod.,  vii.  98  (Bahr,  ad  loc).  "  Methumbaal  of  Arvad  "  is  mentioned 
on  a  monument  of  Tiglath-Pileser  II.  (Schrader,  ii.  249). 

•"'  2  Kings  xii.  10 ;  Jer.  xxix.  26 ;  2  Chron.  xxiv.  6.  Stanley, 
Leclures,  ii.  399. 


xi.  i-xii.2i.]    JOASH  BEN-AHAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  155 


the  whole  service  of  priests  and  Levites  had  fallen 
into  desuetude. 

Then  he  took  the  captains,  and  the  Carians,  and 
the  princes,  and  conducted  the  boy-king,  amid  throngs 
of  his  shouting  and  rejoicing  people,  from  the  Temple 
to  his  own  palace.  There  he  seated  him  on  the  lion- 
throne  of  Solomon  his  fa'ther,  in  the  great  hall  ot 
justice,  and  the  city  was  quiet  and  the  land  had  rest. 
According  to  the  historian,  "Joash  did  right  all  his 
days,  because  Jehoiada  the  priest  instructed  him."^ 
The  stock  addition  that  "  howbeit  the  bamoth  were  not 
removed,  and  the  people  still  sacrificed  and  offered 
incense  there,"  is  no  derogation  from  the  merits  of 
Joash,  and  perhaps  not  even  of  Jehoiada,  since  if  the 
law  against  the  bamoth  then  existed,  it  had  become 
absolutely  unknown,  and  these  local  sanctuaries  were 
held  to  be  conducive  to  true  religion.^ 

It  was  natural  that  the  child  of  the  Temple  should 
have  at  heart  the  interests  of  the  Temple  in  which  he 
had  spent  his  early  days,  and  to  the  shelter  of  which 
he  owed  his  life  and  throne.  The  sacred  house  had 
been  insulted  and  plundered  by  persons  whom  the 
Chronicler  calls   "  the   sons   of  Athaliah,   that  wicked 


'  2  Kings  xii.  2.  After  "  all  his  days,"  the  R.V.  and  A.V.  add 
"  wherein  Jehoiada  instructed  him."  This,  however,  is  not  accurate. 
There  is  a  stop  at  days,  and  "wherein"  should  be  "because."  There 
seems,  however,  from_the  LXX.,  to  be  some  variation  in  the  text,  and 
according  to  the  Chronicler  Joash  became  an  apostate.  LXX.,  ndcras 
tAj  7]fj.epas  &'■  i<f>uiTi^€v  avTbi/  6  iepeus ;  Vulg.,  Ciiiictis  diebits  qnibus 
docitit  eum  Jojadas  sacerdos. 

*  The  Chronicler  (2  Chron.  xxiv.  I,  2)  more  suo  copies  2  Kings 
xii.  I,  2,  but  emits  3,  because  he  dislikes  the  fact  that  not  even  his 
hero  Jehoiada  had  anything  to  say  against  the  bamoth.  But  it 
appears  from  2  Kings  xxiii.  9  that  the  bamoth  had  regular  priests 
of  their  own,  who  "  eat  the  priestly  portions  "  (according  to  an  old 
MS.)  among  their  brethren. 


156  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


woman,"  ^  meaning,  probably,  her  adherents.  Not  only 
had  its  treasures  been  robbed  to  enrich  the  house  of 
Baal,  but  it  had  been  suffered  to  fall  into  complete 
disrepair.  Breaches  gaped  in  the  outer  walls,  and  the 
very  foundations  were  insecure.  The  necessity  for 
restoring  it  occurred,  not,  as  we  should  have  expected, 
to  the  priests  who  lived  at  its  altar,  but  to  the  boy- 
king.  He  issued  an  order  to  the  priests  that  they 
should  take  charge  of  all  the  money  presented  to  the 
Temple  for  the  hallowed  things,  all  the  money  paid  in 
current  coin,  and  all  the  assessments  for  various  fines 
and  vows,^  together  with  every  freewill  contribution. 
They  were  to  have  this  revenue  entirely  at  their 
disposal,  and  to  make  themselves  responsible  for  the 
necessary  repairs.  According  to  the  Chronicler,  they 
were  further  to  raise  a  subscription  throughout  the 
country  from  all  their  personal  friends. 

The  king's  command  had  beep  urgent.  Money  had 
at  first  come  in,  but  nothing  was  done.  Joash  had 
reached  the  twenty-third  year  of  his  reign,  and  was 
thirty  years  old  ;  but  the  Temple  remained  in  its  old 
sordid  condition.  The  matter  is  passed  over  by  the 
king  as  lightly,  courteously,  and  considerately  as  he 
could ;  but  if  he  does  not  charge  the  priests  with  down- 
right embezzlement,  he  does  reproach  them  for  most 
reprehensible  neglect.  They  were  the  appointed 
guardians  of  the  house :  why  did  they  suffer  its 
dilapidations  to  remain  untouched  year  after  year,  while 
they  continued  to  receive  the  golden  stream  which 
poured — but  now,  owing  to  the  disgust  of  the  people, 


'  2  Chron.  xxiv.  7. 

-  2  Kings  xii.  4  :  "  The  money  that  every  man  is  set  at."  Lit., 
"  Each  the  money  of  the  souls  of  his  valuation."  Comp.  Numb,  xviii. 
16;  Lev.  xxvii.  2. 


xi.  i-xii.  21.]    JOASH  BEN-AHAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  157 


in  diminished  volume — into  their  coffers  ?  "  Take  no 
more  money,  therefore,"  he  said,  **  from  your  acquaint- 
ances, but  dehver  it  for  the  breaches  of  the  house." 
For  what  they  had  already  i^eceived  he  does  not  call 
them  to  account,  but  henceforth  takes  the  whole  matter 
into  his  own  hands.  The  neglectful  priests  were  to 
receive  no  more  contributions,  and  not  to  be  responsible 
for  the  repairs.  Joash,  however,  ordered  Jehoiada  to 
take  a  chest  and  put  it  beside  the  altar  on  the  right.^ 
All  contributions  were  to  be  dropped  into  this  chest. 
When  it  was  full,  it  was  carried  by  the  Levites  unopened 
into  the  palace,'^  and  there  the  king's  chancellor  and 
the  high  priest  had  the  ingots  weighed  and  the  money 
counted  ;  its  value  was  added  up,  and  it  was  handed 
over  immediately  to  the  architects,  who  paid  it  to  the 
carpenters  and  masons.  The  priests  were  left  in 
possession  of  the  money  for  the  guilt-offerings  ^  and  for 
the  sin-offerings,  but  with  the  rest  of  the  funds  they 
had  nothing  to  do.  In  this  way  was  restored  the 
confidence  which  the  management  of  the  hierarchy  had 
evidently  forfeited,  and  with  renewed  confidence  in  the 
administration  fresh  gifts  poured  in.  Even  in  the 
cautious  narrative  of  the  Chronicler  it  is  clear  that 
the  priests  hardly  came  out  of  these  transactions  with 
flying  colours.  If  their  honesty  is  not  formally  im- 
pugned, at  least  their  torpor  is  obvious,  as  is  the  fact 
that  they  had  wholly  failed  to  inspire  the  zeal  of  the 
people  till  the  young  king  took  the  affair  into  his  own 
hands.* 

'  The  Chronicler  says  "  at  the  gate." 
^  2  Chron.  xxiv.  11. 

^  Lev.  V.  1-6,  xiv.  13.     "Trespass -money"  is  here  first  mentioned. 
*  2  Chron.  xxiv.  8-10.     There  is  a  difference  between  the  historian 
and  the  Chronicler  respecting  the  vessels  of  the  house. 


IS8  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

The  long  reign  of  Joash  ended  in  eclipse  and  murder. 
If  the  later  tradition  be  correct,  it  was  also  darkened 
with  atrocious  ingratitude  and  crime. 

For,  according  to  the  Chronicler,  Jehoiada  died  at 
the  advanced  age  of  one  hundred  and  thirty,  and  was 
buried,  as  an  unwonted  honour,  in  the  sepulchres  of  the 
kings.^  When  he  was  dead,  the  princes  of  Judah 
came  to  Joash,  who  had  now  been  king  for  many  years, 
and  with  a  strange  suddenness  tempted  the  zealous 
repairer  of  the  Temple  of  Jehovah  into  idolatrous 
apostasy.  With  soft  speech  they  seduced  him  into  the 
worship  of  Asherim.  It  was  marvellous  indeed  if  the 
child  of  the  Temple  became  its  foe,  and  he  who  had 
made  a  covenant  with  Jehovah  fell  away  to  Baalim, 
But  worse  followed.  Prophets  reproved  him,  and  he 
paid  them  no  heed,  in  spite  of  "  the  greatness  of  the 
burdens  " — i.e.,  the  multitude  of  the  menaces — laid  upon 
him.^  The  stern,  denunciative  harangues  were  despised. 
At  last  Zechariah,  the  son  of  his  benefactor  Jehoiada, 
rebuked  king  and  people.  He  cried  aloud  from  some 
eminence  in  the  court  of  the  Temple,  that  "since  they  had 
transgressed  the  commandments  of  Jehovah  they  could 
not  prosper  :  they  had  forsaken  Him,  and  He  would 
forsake  them."  Infuriated  by  this  prophecy  of  woe, 
the  guilty  people,  at  the  command  of  their  guiltier  king, 

•  2  Chron.  xxiv.  15,  16.  The  statement  of  the  Chronicler  is 
(as  so  often)  surrounded  by  difficulties  and  improbabilities.  If 
Jehoiada  was  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  old  when  he  died,  he 
must  have  been  ninety  when  Ahaziah  was  murdered,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-three.  But  as  Ahaziah  was  (apparently)  born  when  his 
father  Jehoram  was  eighteen,  Jehosheba  must  have  been  under 
eighteen,  and  must  have  been  married  to  a  man  seventy  years 
older  than  herself!     See  Lord  Arthur  Hervey,  On  the  Genealogies, 

p.  113. 

-  2  Chron.  xxiv.  27. 


xi.  i-xii.  21.]     JOASH  BEN-AHAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  159 

Stoned  him  to  death.      As  he  lay  dying,  he  exclaimed, 
"  The  Lord  look  upon  it,  and  require  it !  "  ^ 

The  entire  silence  of  the  elder  and  better  authority 
might  lead  us  to  hope  that  there  may  be  room  for 
doubt  as  to  the  accuracy  of  the  much  later  tradition. 
Yet  there  certainly  was  a  persistent  belief  that  Zechariah 
had  been  thus  martyred.  A. wild  legend,  related  in  the 
Talmud,'^  tells  us  that  when  Nebuzaradan  conquered 
Jerusalem  and  entered  the  Temple  he  saw  blood 
bubbling  up  from  the  floor  of  the  court,  and  slaughtered 
ninety-four  myriads,  so  that  the  blood  flowed  till  it 
touched  the  blood  of  Zechariah,  that  it  might  be 
fulfilled  which  is  said  (Hos.  iv.  2),  "  Blood  toucheth 
blood."  When  he  saw  the  blood  of  Zechariah,  and 
noticed  that  it  was  boiling  and  agitated,  he  asked, 
''  What  is  this  ?  "  and  was  told  that  it  was  the  spilled 
blood  of  the  sacrifices.  Finding  this  to  be  false,  he 
threatened  to  comb  the  flesh  of  the  priests  with  iron 
curry-combs  if  they  did  not  tell  the  truth.  Then  they 
confessed  that  it  was  the  blood  of  the  murdered 
Zechariah.  "Well,"  he  said,  "I  will  pacify  him." 
First  he  slaughtered  the  greater  and  lesser  Sanhedrin  : 
but  the  blood  did  not  rest.     Then  he  sacrificed  young 

'  Stanley  charitably  thinks  that  Joash  may  have  only  burst  into 
hasty  words  like  those  of  Henry  II.  against  Becket. 

-  The  Chronicler  says  that  "the  sons  of  Jehoiada "  had  helped 
to  crown  him,  and  that  he  put  "  the  sons  of  Jehoiada "  to  death 
(2  Chron.  xxiii.    II,  xxiv.   25). 

^  Gittin,  f.  57,  2;  Sanhedrin,  f.  96,  2;  Hershon,  Treasures  of  the 
Talmud,  p.  276;  Lightfoot  on  Matt,  xxiii.  35.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  reading  "  Berechiah "  is  a  later  correction  of  some 
one  who  remembered  the  murder  narrated  in  Jos.,  B.  J,,  IV.  v.  4, 
and  that  the  true  reading  is  "  son  of  Jehoiada."  This  is  the  last 
murder  of  a  prophet  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  we  learn 
from  the  Gospel  the  fact  that  he  was  slain  "  between  the  Temple 
and  the  altar." 


i6o  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

men  and  maidens  :  but  the  blood  still  bubbled.  At 
last  he  cried,  "  Zechariah,  Zechariah,  must  I  then  slay 
them  all  ?  "  Then  the  blood  was  still,  and  Nebuzaradan, 
thinking  how  much  blood  he  had  shed,  fled,  repented, 
and  became  a  Jewish  proselyte  I 

Perhaps  the  worst  feature  of  the  story  against  Joash 
might  have  been  susceptible  of  a  less  shocking  colouring. 
He  had  naturally  all  his  life  been  under  the  influence 
of  priestly  domination.  The  ascendency  which  Jehoiada 
had  acquired  as  priest-regent  had  been  maintained  till 
long  after  the  young  king  had  arrived  at  full  manhood. 
At  last,  hov/ever,  he  had  come  into  colHsion  with  the 
priestly  body.  He  was  in  the  right ;  they  were 
transparently  in  the  wrong.  The  Chronicler,  and 
even  the  older  historian,  soften  the  story  against  the 
priests  as  much  as  they  can  ;  but  in  both  their  narratives 
it  is  plain  that  Jehoiada  and  the  whole  hierarchy  had 
been  more  careful  of  their  own  interests  than  of  those 
of  the  Temple,  of  which  they  were  the  appointed 
guardians.  Even  if  they  can  be  acquitted  of  potential 
malfeasance,  they  had  been  guilty  of  reprehensible 
carelessness.  It  is  clear  that  in  this  matter  they  did 
not  command  the  confidence  of  the  people ;  for  so  long 
as  they  had  the  management  of  affairs  the  sources  of 
munificence  were  either  dried  up  or  only  flowed  in 
scanty  streams,  whereas  they  were  poured  forth  with 
glad  abundance  when  the  administration  of  the  funds 
was  placed  mainly  in  the  hands  of  laymen  under  the 
king's  chancellor.  It  is  probable  that  when  Jehoiada 
was  dead  Joash  thought  it  right  to  assert  his  royal 
authority  in  greater  independence  of  the  priestly  party  ; 
and  that  party  was  headed  by  Zechariah,  the  son  of 
Jehoiada.  The  Chronicler  says  that  he  prophesied  : 
that,  however,  would  not  necessarily  constitute  him  a 


xi.  1-xii.  21.]     JOASH  BEN-AHAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  i6i 


prophet,  any  more  than  it  constituted  Caiaphas.  If  he 
was  a  prophet,  and  was  yet  at  the  head  of  the  priests, 
he  furnishes  an  ail-but  solitary  instance  of  such  a 
position.  The  position  of  a  prophet,  occupied  in  the 
great  work  of  moral  reformation,  was  so  essentially 
antithetic  to  that  of  priests,  absorbed  in  ritual  cere- 
monies, that  there  is  no  bo*dy  of  men  in  Scripture  of 
whom,  as  a  whole,  we  have  a  more  pitiful  record  than 
of  the  Jewish  priests.  From  Aaron,  who  made  the 
golden  calf,  to  Urijah,  who  sanctioned  the  idolatrous 
altar  of  Ahaz,  and  so  down  to  Annas  and  Caiaphas, 
who  crucified  the  Lord  of  glory,  they  rendered  few 
signal  services  to  true  religion.  They  opposed  Uzziah 
when  he  invaded  their  functions,  but  they  acquiesced 
in  all  the  idolatries  and  abominations  of  Rehoboam, 
Abijah,  Ahaziah,  Ahaz,  and  many  other  kings,  without 
a  syllable  of  recorded  protest.  When  a  prophet  did 
spring  from  their  ranks,  they  set  their  faces  with  one 
consent,  and  were  confederate  against  him.  They 
mocked  and  ridiculed  Isaiah.  When  Jeremiah  rose 
among  them,  the  priest  Pashur  smote  him  on  the  cheek, 
and  the  whole  body  persecuted  him  to  death,  leaving 
him  to  be  protected  only  by  the  pity  of  eunuchs  and 
courtiers.  Ezekiel  was  the  priestliest  of  the  prophets, 
and  yet  he  was  forced  to  denounce  the  apostasies 
which  they  permitted  in  the  very  Temple.  The  pages 
of  the  prophets  ring  with  denunciations  of  their  priestly 
contemporai^ies.^ 

We  do  not  know  enough  of  Zechariah  to  say  much 
about  his  character ;  but  priests  in  every  age  have 
shown  themselves  the  most  unscrupulous  and  the  most 
implacable   of  enemies.     Joash  probably  stood  to  him 

'  Isa.  xxiv.  2;  Jer.  v.  31,  xxiii.  II ;  Ezek.  vii.  26,  xxii,  26;  Hos. 
iv.  9;  Mic.  iii.   Ii,  etc. 

II 


1 62  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


in  the  same  relation  that  Henry  II.  stood  to  Thomas 
a  Becket.  The  priest's  murder  may  have  been  due  to 
an  outburst  of  passion  on  the  part  of  the  king's  friends, 
or  of  the  king  himself — gentle  as  his  character  seems 
to  have  been — without  being  the  act  of  black  ingrati- 
tude which  late  traditions  represented  it  to  be.  The 
legend  about  Zechariah's  blood  represents  the  priest's 
spirit  as  so  ruthlessly  unforgiving  as  to  awaken  the 
astonishment  and  even  the  rebukes  of  the  Babylonian 
idolater.  Such  a  legend  could  hardly  have  arisen  in  the 
case  of  a  man  who  was  other  than  a  most  formidable 
opponent.  The  murder  of  Joash  may  have  been,  in  its 
turn,  a  final  outcome  of  the  revenge  of  the  priestly  party. 
The  details  of  the  story  must  be  left  to  inference  and 
conjecture,  especially  as  they  are  not  even  mentioned  in 
the  earlier  and  more  impartial  annalists. 

It  is  at  least  singular  that  while  Joash,  the  king,  is 
blamed  for  continuing  the  worship  at  the  bamotli, 
Jehoiada,  the  high  priest,  is  not  blamed,  though  they 
continued  throughout  his  long  and  powerful  regency. 
Further,  we  have  an  instance  of  the  priest-regent's 
autocracy  which  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  redounding 
to  his  credit.  It  is  preserved  in  an  accidental  allusion 
on  the  page  of  Jeremiah.  In  Jer.  xxix.  26  we  read  his 
reproof  and  doom  of  the  lying  prophecy  of  the  priest 
Shemaiah  the  Nehelamite,  because  as  a  priest  he  had 
sent  a  letter  to  the  chief  priest  Zephaniah  and  all  the 
priests,  urging  them  as  the  successors  of  Jehoiada  to 
follow  the  ruling  of  Jehoiada,  which  was  to  put  Jeremiah 
in  a  collar.  For  Jehoiada,  he  said,  "  had  ordered  the 
priests,  as  officers  [^pakidint]  in  the  house  of  Jehovah,  to 
put  in  the  stocks  every  one  that  is  mad  and  maketh 
himself  a  prophet."  ^    If,  then,  the  Jehoiada  referred  to  is 

'  Jer.  xxix.  24-32. 


xi.  1-xii.  21.]     JOASH  BEN-AHAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  163 

the  priest-regent,  as  seems  undoubtedly  to  be  the  case, 
we  see  that  he  hated  all  interference  of  Jehovah's 
prophets  with  his  rule.  That  the  prophets  were 
usually  regarded  by  the  world  and  by  priests  as 
"  mad,"  we  see  from  the  fact  that  the  title  is  given 
by  Jehu's  captains  to  Elisha's  emissary  ;  ^  and  that  this 
continued  to  be  the  case  we  see  from  the  fact  that  the 
priests  and  Pharisees  of  Jerusalem  said  of  John  the 
Baptist  that  he  had  a  devil,  and  of  Christ  that  He  was 
a  Samaritan,  and  that  He,  too,  had  a  devil.  If  Joash 
was  in  opposition  to  the  priestly  party,  he  was  in  the 
same  position  as  all  God's  greatest  saints  and  reformers 
have  ever  been  from  the  days  of  Moses  to  the  days 
of  John  Wesley.  The  dominance  of  priestcraft  is  the 
invariable  and  inevitable  death  of  true,  as  apart  from 
functional,  religion.  Priests  are  always  apt  to  con- 
centrate their  attention  upon  their  temples,  altars, 
religious  practices  and  rites — in  a  word,  upon  the 
externals  of  religion.  If  they  gain  a  complete  ascen- 
dency over  their  fellow-believers,  the  faithful  become 
their  absolute  slaves,  religion  degenerates  into  for- 
malism, "and  the  life  of  the  soul  is  choked  by  the 
observance  of  the  ceremonial  law."  It  was  a  misfortune 
for  the  Chosen  People  that,  except  among  the  prophets 
and  the  wise  men,  the  external  worship  was  thought 
much  more  of  than  the  moral  law.  "  To  the  ordinary 
man,"  says  Wellhausen,  "  it  was  not  moral  but  litur- 
gical acts  which  seemed  to  be  religious."  This  accounts 
for  the  monotonous  iteration  of  judgments  on  the 
character  of  kings,  based  primarily,  not  upon  their 
essential  character,  but  on  their  relation  to  the  bamoth 
and  the  calves. 

Although  the  historian  of  the  Kings  gives  no  hint  of 

'  2  Kings  ix.  11. 


1 64  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


this  dark  story  of  Zechariah's  murder,  or  of  the  apostasy 
of  Joash,  and  indeed  narrates  no  other  event  of  the 
long  reign  of  forty  years,  he  tells  us  of  the  deplorable 
close.  Hazael's  ambition  had  been  fatal  to  Israel ;  and 
now,  in  the  cessation  of  Assyrian  inroads  upon  Aram, 
he  extended  his  arms  towards  Judah.  He  went  up 
against  Gath  and  took  it,  and  cherished  designs  against 
Jerusalem.  Apparently  he  did  not  head  the  expedition 
in  person,  and  the  historian  implies  that  Joash  bought 
off  the  attack  of  his  "general."  But  the  Chronicler 
makes  things  far  worse.  He  says  that  the  Syrian  host 
marched  to  Jerusalem,  destroyed  all  the  princes  of  the 
people,  plundei-ed  the  city,  and  sent  the  spoil  to  Hazael, 
who  was  at  Damascus.  Judah,  he  says,  had  assembled 
a  vast  army  to  resist  the  small  force  of  the  Syrian  raid ; 
but  Joash  was  ignominiously  defeated,  and  was  driven 
to  pay  blackmail  to  the  invader.  As  to  this  defeat  in 
battle  the  historian  is  silent ;  but  he  mentions  what  the 
Chronicler  omits — namely,  that  the  only  way  in  which 
Joash  could  raise  the  requisite  bribe  was  by  once  more 
stripping  the  Temple  and  the  palace,  and  sending  to 
Damascus  all  the  treasures  which  his  three  predecessors 
had  consecrated, — though  we  are  surprised  to  learn  that 
after  so  many  strippings  and  plunderings  any  of  them 
could  still  be  left. 

The  anguish  and  mortification  of  mind  caused  by 
these  disasters,  and  perhaps  the  wounds  he  had  received 
in  the  defeat  of  his  army,  threw  Joash  into  "  great 
diseases."  But  he  was  not  suffered  to  die  of  these.^ 
His  servants — perhaps,  if  that  story  be  authentic,  to 
avenge  the  slain  son  of  Jehoiada,  but  doubtless  also  in 

'  But  from  the  Book  of  Kings  we  should  not  infer  that  there  had 
been  any  fighting  at  all.  The  Syrian  commander  had  been  bribed  to 
retire. 


xi.  i-xii.  21.]     JOASH  BEN-AHAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  165 

disgust  at  the  national  humiliation — rose  in  conspiracy 
against  him,  and  smote  him  at  Beth-Millo/  where  he 
was  lying  sick.  The  Septuagint,  in  2  Chron.  xxiv.  27, 
adds  the  dark  fact  that  all  his  sons  joined  in  the  con- 
spiracy.'^ This  cannot  be  true  of  Amaziah,  who  put  the 
murderer  to  death.  Such,  however,  was  the  deplorable 
end  of  the  king  who  had  stood  by  the  Temple  pillar  in 
his  fair  childhood,  amid  the  shouts  and  trumpet-blasts 
of  a  rejoicing  people.  At  that  time  all  things  seemed 
full  of  promise  and  of  hope.  Who  could  have  anticipated 
that  the  boy  whose  head  had  been  touched  with  the 
sacred  oil  and  over-shadowed  with  the  Testimony — the 
young  king  who  had  made  a  covenant  with  Jehovah, 
and  had  initiated  the  task  of  restoring  the  ruined 
Temple  to  its  pristine  beauty — would  end  his  reign  in 
earthquake  and  eclipse  ?  If  indeed  he  had  been  guilty 
of  the  black  ingratitude  and  murderous  apostasy  which 
tradition  laid  to  his  charge,  we  see  in  his  end  the 
Nemesis  of  his  ill-doing ;  yet  we  cannot  but  pity  one 
who,  after  so  long  a  reign,  perished  amid  the  spoliation 
of  his  people,  and  was  not  even  allowed  to  end  his  days 
by  the  sore  sickness  into  which  he  had  fallen,  but  was 
hurried  into  the  next  world  by  the  assassin's  knife. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  hope  that  his  deeds  were  less 
black  than  the  Chronicler  painted.  He  had  made  the 
priests  feel  his  power  and  resentment,  and  their  Levitic 
recorder  was  not  likely  to  take  a  lenient  view  of  his 
offences.  He  says  that  though  Joash  was  buried  in 
the  City  of  David,  he  was  not  buried  in  the  sepulchres 
of  his  fathers.  The  historian  of  the  Kings,  however, 
expressly  says  that  "  they  buried  him  with  his  fathers 

'  We  cannot  understand  the   addition   "  on   the  way  that   goeth 
down  to  Silla."     Silla  is  nowhere  else  referred  to. 
"  LXX.,  2  Chron.  xxiv.  27,  koI  ol  viol  airov  travres. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


in  the  City  of  David,"  and  he  was  peaceably  succeeded 
by  Amaziah  his  son. 

There  is  a  curious,  though  it  may  be  an  accidental, 
circumstance  about  the  name  of  the  two  conspirators 
who  slew  him.  They  are  called  "Jozacar,  the  son  of 
Shimeath,  and  Jehozabad,  the  son  of  Shomer,  his 
servants."  The  names  mean  "Jehovah  remembers," 
the  son  of  "  Hearer,"  and  "  Jehovah  awards,"  the  son  of 
"Watcher";  and  this  strangely  recalls  the  last  words 
attributed  in  the  Book  of  Chronicles  to  the  martyred 
Zechariah.  "Jehovah  look  upon  it,  and  require  it!" 
The  Chronicler  turns  the  names  into  "  Zabad,  the  son 
of  Shimeath,  an  Ammonitess,  and  Jehozabad,  the  son  of 
Shimrith,  a  Moabitess."  Does  he  record  this  to  account 
for  their  murderous  deed  by  the  blood  of  hated  nations 
which  ran  in  their  veins  ? 


CHAPTER   XV 

AMAZIAH  OF  JUDAH 

B.C.  796—783  (?) 
2  Kings  xiv.   i — 22 

"All  they  that  take  the  sword  shall   perish  with  the  sword." — 
Matt.  xxvi.  52. 

THE  fate  of  Amaziah  ("Jehovah  is  strong"),  son  of 
Joash  of  Judah,  resembles  in  some  respects  that 
of  his  father.  Both  began  to  reign  prosperously  :  the 
happiness  of  both  ended  in  disaster.  Amaziah  at  his 
accession  was  twenty-five  years  old.  He  was  the  son 
of  a  lady  of  Jerusalem  named  Jehoaddin.  He  reigned 
twenty-nine  years,  of  which  the  later  ones  were  passed 
in  misery,  peril,  and  degradation,  and,  like  the  unhappy 
Joash,  and  at  about  the  same  age,  he  fell  the  victim  of 
domestic  conspiracy. 

The  hereditary  principle  was  too  strongly  established 
to  enable  the  murderers  of  Joash  to  set  it  aside,  but 
Amaziah  was  not  at  first  strong  enough  to  make  any 
head  against  them.  In  time  he  became  established  in 
his  kingdoiri,  and  then  his  earliest  act  v/as  to  bring  the 
head  conspirators,  Jozacar  and  Jehozabad,  to  justice. 
It  was  noted  as  a  most  remarkable  circumstance  that 
he  did  not  put  to  death  their  children,  and  extirpate 
their  houses.     In  acting  thus,  if  he  were  influenced  by 

167 


1 68  TiiE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


a  spirit  of  mercy,  he  showed  himself  before  his  time  ; 
but  such  mercy  was  completely  contrary  to  the  uni- 
versal custom,  and  was  also  regarded  as  most  impolitic. 
Even  the  comparatively  merciful  Greeks  had  the 
proverb,  "  Fool,  who  has  murdered  the  sire,  and  left 
his  sons  to  avenge  him  I  "  ^ 

In  epochs  of  the  wild  justice  of  revenge,  when  blood- 
feuds  are  an  established  and  approved  institution,  the 
policy  of  letting  vengeance  only  fall  on  the  actual 
offender  was  regarded  as  fatal.  Perhaps  Amaziah  felt 
it  beyond  his  power  to  do  more  than  bring  the  actual 
murderers  to  justice,  and  it  is  possible  that  their 
children  may  have  been  among  the  conspirators  who, 
in  his  hour  of  shame,  ultimately  destroyed  him. 

The  historian,  it  is  true,  attributes  his  conduct  to 
magnanimity,  or  rather  to  his  obedience  to  the  law, 
"  The  fathers  shall  not  be  put  to  death  for  the  children, 
nor  the  children  for  the  fathers ;  but  every  man  shall  die 
for  his  own  sin."  This  is  a  reference  to  Deut.  xxiv.  i6, 
and  is  probably  the  independent  comment  of  the  writer 
who  recorded  the  event  two  centuries  later.  In  the 
gradual  growth  of  a  milder  civilisation,  and  the  more 
common  dominance  of  legal  justice,  such  a  law  may 
have  come  into  force,  as  expressive  of  that  voice  of 
conscience  which  is  to  sincere  nations  the  voice  of  God. 
That  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  as  a  book,  was  not  in 
existence  in  its  present  form  till  four  reigns  later  we 
shall  hereafter  see  strong  reasons  to  believe.  But  even 
if  any  part  of  that  book  was  in  existence,  it  is  not  easy 
to  understand  how  Amaziah  would  have  been  able  to 
decide  that  the  law  which  forbade  the  punishment  of 

'  N'^TTtos  8s  Traripa  Kreivas  vioi/s  KaraXelirei.  Comp.  Q.  Curtius,  vi.  II  : 
"Lege  cautum  erat  ut  propinqui  eorum  qui  regi  insidiati  cum  ipsis 
necarentur."     Cic,  Ad  Brut.,  15. 


1-22.]  AMAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  169 


the  children  with  the  offending  parents  was  the  law 
which  he  was  bound  to  follow,  when  Moses  and  Joshua 
and  other  heroes  of  his  race  had  acted  on  the  olden 
principle.  The  innocent  families  of  Korah,  Dathan, 
and  Abiram  were  represented  as  having  been  swal- 
lowed up  with  the  ambitious  heads  of  their  houses. 
Joshua  and  all  Israel  had  not  only  stoned  Achan,  but 
with  him  all  his  unoffending  house.  What,  too,  was 
the  meaning  of  the  law  which  established  the  five  Cities 
of  Refuge  as  the  best  way  to  protect  the  accidental 
homicide  from  the  recognised  and  unrebuked  actions 
of  the  Goel^the  avenger  of  blood  ?  The  vengeance 
of  a  Goel  was  regarded,  as  it  is  in  the  East  and  South 
to  this  day,  not  as  an  implacable  fierceness,  but  as  a 
sacred  duty,  the  neglect  of  which  would  cover  him  with 
infamy.  Judging  of  our  documents  by  the  impartial  light 
of  honest  criticism,  it  seems  impossible  to  deny  that 
the  law  of  Deuteronomy  was  the  law  of  an  advancing 
civilisation,  which  became  more  mild  as  justice  became 
firmer  and  more  available.  If  Deuteronomy  represents 
the  legislation  of  Moses,  we  can  only  say  that  in  this 
respect  Amaziah  was  the  first  person  who  paid  the 
shghtest  attention  to  it.  Such  exceptional  obedience 
may  well  excite  the  notice  of  the  historian,  in  whose 
pages  we  see  that  prophets  like  Ahijah,  Elijah,  and 
Elisha  had,  again  and  again,  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  their  times,  contemplated  the  total  excision, 
not  only  of  erring-  kings,  but  even  of  their  little  children 
and  their  most  distant  kinsfolk. 

Further  : — We  are  told  that  Amaziah  "  did  that 
which  was  right  in  the  sight  of  Jehovah :  he  did 
according  to  all  things  as  Joash  his  father  did.^^  The 
Chronicler  also  bestows  his  eulogy  on  Amaziah ;  but 
having  told  such  dark  stories  of  the  apostasy  of  Joash 


I70  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


to  Asherah-worship  and  his  murder  of  the  prophets, 
he  could  hardly  add  "  as  Joash  his  father  did  "  ;  so  he 
omits  those  words.  The  reservation  that  Amaziah  did 
right,  *'  yet  not  like  David  his  father  "  (2  Kings  xiv.  3), 
"but  not  with  a  perfect  heart"  (2  Chron.  xxv.  2),  is 
followed  by  the  stock  abatement  about  the  bamoth, 
and  the  sacrifices  and  incense  burnt  in  them.  This 
was  a  crime  in  the  eyes  of  writers  in  b.c.  540,  but 
certainly  not  in  the  eyes  of  any  king  before  the 
discovery  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Law  "  in  the  reign  of 
Josiah,  B.C.  621.  We  are  compelled,  therefore,  by 
simple  truth,  to  ask,  How  came  it  that  Amaziah  should 
be  so  scrupulous  as  to  observe  the  Deuteronomic  law 
by  not  slaying  the  sons  of  his  father's  murderers,  while 
he  does  not  seem  to  be  aware,  any  more  than  the 
best  of  his  predecessors,  that  while  he  obeyed  one 
precept  he  was  violating  the  essence  and  spirit  of  the 
entire  code  in  which  the  precept  occurs  ?  The  one 
main  object,  the  constantly  repeated  law  of  Deuteronomy, 
is  the  centralisation  of  all  worship,  and  the  rigid  pro- 
hibition of  every  local  place  of  sacrifice.  Strange  that 
Amaziah  should  have  selected  for  attention  a  single 
precept,  while  he  is  profoundly  unconscious  of,  or  indif- 
ferent to,  the  fact  that  he  is  setting  aside  the  regulation 
with  which  the  law,  as  Deuteronomy  represents  it, 
begins  and  ends,  and  on  which  it  incessantly  insists ! 

Joash  had  been  something  of  a  weakling,  as  though 
the  gloom  of  his  early  concealment  in  the  Temple  and 
the  shadow  of  priestly  dominance  had  paralysed  his 
independence.  Amaziah,  on  the  other  hand,  born  in 
the  purple,  was  vigorous  and  restless.  When  he  was 
secure  upon  the  throne,  and  had  done  his  duty  to  his 
father's  memory,  he  bent  his  efforts  to  recover  Edom, 
The  Edomites  had  revolted  in  the  days  of  his  great- 


xiv.  1-22.]  AMAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  171 


grandfather  Jehoram/  and  since  then  "  did  tear  per- 
petually," ^  harassing  with  incessant  raids  the  miserable 
fellahin  of  Southern  Judah.  They  reaped  the  crops  of 
the  settled  inhabitants,  cut  down  their  fruit-trees,  burnt 
their  farmsteads,  and  carried  their  children  into  cruel 
and  hopeless  slavery.  One  verse  tells  us  all  that  the 
historian  knew,  or  cared  to*  relate,  of  Amaziah's  cam- 
paign. He  only  says  that  it  was  eminently  successful. 
Amaziah  confronted  the  Edomites  in  the  Valley  of 
Salt,^  on  the  border  of  Edom,  to  the  south  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  and  inflicted  upon  them  a  signal  defeat.  He  not 
only  slaughtered  ten  thousand  of  them,  but,  advancing 
southwards,  he  stormed  and  captured  Selah  or  Petra, 
their  rocky  capital,  two  days'  journey  north  of  Ezion- 
Geber,  on  the  gulf  of  Akabah.^  Considering  the  natural 
strength  of  Petra,  amid  its  mountain-fastnesses,  this 
was  a  victory  of  which  he  might  well  be  proud,  and 
he  marked  his  prowess  by  changing  the  name  of  the 
city  to  Joktheel,  "subdued  by  God."  The  historian, 
copying  the  ancient  record  before  him,  says  that  Selah 
continued  to  be  so  called  "to  this  day."^  This  is  a 
curious  instance  of  close  transcription,  for  it  is  certain 
that  Selah  can  only  have  retained  the  name  of  Joktheel 
for  a  very  short  period,  and  had  lost  it  long  before  the 
days  of  the  Exile.  Even  in  the  reign  of  Ahaz  (b.c. 
735-715)    the  Edomites    had    so  completely  recovered 

'  2  Kings  viii.  20-22. 

-  Amos  i.   II. 

*  The  Valley  i^Ge)  of  Salt  is  "the  plain  of  the  Sabkah,"  about  two 
miles  broad,  between  the  southern  end  of  the  Dead  Sea  and  the 
hills  which  separate  the  Ghor  from  the  Arabah  (Seetzen,  Reisen,  ii. 
356 ;  Robinson,  Researches,  ii.  450,  488).  David  had  won  a  great 
victory  there   (2  Sam,   viii.    13  ;  Psalm  Ix.,  title). 

■*  Selah,  "  a  rock  "  (Ilerpa).     Eusebius  calls  it  Rekem. 

^  It  is  the  name  also  of  a  city  of  Judah  (Josh.  xv.  38). 


172  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


lost  ground  that  they  were  able  to  make  predatory 
excursions  into  Judah,  and  to  threaten  Hebron,  which 
would  have  been  obviously  impossible  if  they  were 
not  masters  of  their  own  chief  capital.^  The  district 
which  Amaziah  seems  to  have  conquered  was  mainly 
west  of  the  Arabah.  He  wished  to  restore  Elath,  and 
perhaps  to  carry  out  the  old  commerce  with  the  Red 
Sea  which  Solomon  began,  and  which  had  fired  the 
ambition  of  Jehoshaphat.  The  conquest  of  Selah 
secured  the  road  for   his  commercial  caravans. 

So  far  the  older  and  better  authorities.  The 
Chronicler  expands  the  story  in  his  usual  fashion,  in 
which  historical  and  critical  verit}^  is  so  often  compelled, 
if  not  to  suspect  the  disease  of  exaggeration  and  the 
bias  of  Levitism,  at  least  to  feel  uncertainty  as  to  the 
details.  He  says  that  Amaziah  collected  an  army  of 
three  hundred  thousand  men  of  Judah,  trained  them 
to  a  high  state  of  discipline,  and  armed  them  with  spear 
and  shield.  He  hired  in  addition  one  hundred  thousand 
Israelitish  mercenaries,  mighty  men  of  valour,  at  the 
heavy  cost  of  one  hundred  talents  of  silver.  He  was 
rebuked  by  a  prophet  for  employing  Israelites,  "  because 
the  Lord  was  not  with  them,"  so  that  if  he  used  their 
aid  he  would  certainly  be  defeated.  Amaziah  asked 
what  he  was  to  do  for  the  hundred  talents,  and  the 
prophet  told  him  that  Jehovah  could  give  him  much 
more  than  this.^  So  he  dismissed  his  Ephraimites, 
who,  returning  home  in  great  fury,  "fell  upon  the  cities 
of  Judah,"  from  Samaria  even  unto  Beth-horon,  killed 
three  thousand  of  their  inhabitants,  and  took  much 
spoil.  Amaziah,  however,  defeated  the  Edomites  with- 
out their  aid,  and  not  only  slew  ten  thousand,  but  took 

'  2  Chron.  xxviii.  17  ;  Jos.,  Anit.,  XII.  viii.  6. 
^  2  Chron.  xxv.  5-10,  13. 


xiv.  1-22.]  AMAZIAH  OF  JUDAH  173 

captive  ten  thousand  more,  all  of  whom  he  dashed  to 
pieces  by  hurling  them  from  the  top  of  the  rock  of 
Petra.^ 

Then,  by  an  apostasy  much  more  astounding  than 
even  that  of  his  father  Joash,  he  took  home  with  him 
the  idols  of  Mount  Seir,  worshipped  them,  and  burnt 
incense  before  them.  Jehovah  sends  a  prophet  to 
rebuke  him  for  his  senseless  infatuation  in  worshipping 
the  gods  of  the  Edomites  whom  he  had  just  so  utterly 
defeated  ;  but  Amaziah  returns  him  the  insolent  answer, 
"  Who  made  thee  of  the  king's  council  ?  Be  silent, 
or  I  will  put  thee  to  death."  The  prophet  met  his 
ironical  sneer  with  words  of  deeper  meaning  :  "  If  I  am 
not  on  your  council,  I  am  on  God's.  Because  thou  hast 
not  hearkened  to  my  counsel,  I  know  that  God  has 
counselled  to  destroy  thee." 

The  later  writer  thus  accounts  for  the  folly  and 
overthrow  of  this  valorous  and  hitherto  eminently 
pious  king.  Certain  it  is,  as  we  shall  narrate  in  the 
next  chapter,  that,  in  spite  of  warning,  he  had  the 
temerity  to  challenge  to  battle  the  warlike  Joash  ben- 
Jehoahaz  of  Israel,  grandson  of  Jehu.  The  kings  met 
at  Beth-Shemesh,  and  Amaziah  was  utterly  routed, 
with  consequences  so  shameful  to  himself  and  to  Jeru- 
salem that  he  was  never  able  to  hold  up  his  head  again. 
He  could  but  eat  away  his  own  heart  in  despair,  a 
ruined  man.  After  this  he  "  lived  "  rather  than  reigned 
fifteen  years  longer.^  The  wall  of  Jerusalem,  broken 
down  near  the  Damascus  Gate,  on  the  side  towards 

'  KaraKprjiMvifffids.  This  mode  of  execution  prevailed  till  quite 
recent  times  in  the  little  republic  of  Andorra. 

■^  2  Kings  xiv.  17.  The  phrase  that  "he  lived  fifteen  years"  is 
unusual,  and  seems  to  imply  that  the  historian  saw, — 

"In  more  of  life,  true  life  no  more." 


174  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Israel,  for  a  space  of  four  hundred  cubits,  was  a  standing 
witness  of  the  king's  infatuated  folly.  His  people  were 
ashamed  of  him,  and  weary  of  him ;  and  at  last,  seeing 
that  nothing  more  could  be  expected  of  one  whose  spirit 
had  evidently  been  broken  from  impetuosity  into  abject- 
ness,  they  formed  a  conspiracy  against  him.  To  save 
his  life  he  fled  to  the  strong  fort  of  Lachish,  a  royal 
Canaanite  city,  in  the  hills  to  the  south-west  of  Judah.^ 
But  they  pursued  him  thither,  and  even  Lachish  would 
not  protect  him.  He  was  murdered.  They  threw  the 
corpse  upon  a  chariot,  conveyed  it  to  Jerusalem,  and 
buried  it  in  the  sepulchres  of  his  fathers.  The  people 
quietly  elevated  to  the  throne  his  son  Azariah,  then 
sixteen  years  old,  who  had  been  born  the  year  before 
his  father's  crowning  disgrace.  What  became  of  the 
conspirators  we  do  not  know.  They  were  probably 
too  strong  to  be  brought  to  justice,  and  we  are  not  told 
that  Azariah  even  attempted  to  visit  their  crime  upon 
their  heads. 

^  Josh.  X.  6,  31,  XV.  39;  2  Kings  xviii.  17  ;  2  Chron.  xi.  9. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE  DYNASTY   OF  JEHU 


B.C. 

Jehoahaz... 

...     814-797  .. 

.  2  Kings  xiii.  1-9 

Joash 

...     797-781   .. 

„        xiii.  10-21,  xiv.  8-16 

Jeroboam  II. 

...     781-740  .. 

„        xiv.  23-29 

Zechariah 

...     740 

,,        XV.  8-12 

"  Them  that  honour  Me  I  will  honour,  and  they  that  despise  Me 
shall  be  lightly  esteemed." — I  Sam.  ii.  30. 

ISRAEL  had  scarcely  ever  sunk  to  so  low  a  nadir 
of  degradation  as  she  did  in  the  reign  of  the 
son  of  Jehu.  We|  have  already  mentioned  that  some 
assign  to  his  reign  the  ghastly  story  which  we  have 
narrated  in  our  sketch  of  the  work  of  Elisha.  It  is 
told  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Second  Book  of  Kings, 
and  seems  to  belong  to  the  reign  of  Jehoram  ben-Ahab  ; 
but  it  may  have  got  displaced  from  this  epoch  of  yet 
deeper  wretchedness.  The  accounts  of  Jehoahaz  in 
2  Kings  xiii.  are  evidently  fragmentary  and  abrupt. 

Jehoahaz  reigned  seventeen  years.^  Naturally,  he 
did  not  disturb    the    calf-worship,   which,    like   all  his 

'  I  have  not  thought  it  worth  while  to  unravel  by  a  series  of 
uncertain  conjectures  the  careless,  and  often  self-contradictory, 
synchronism  of  the  reigns  of  the  kings  in  the  two  kingdoms.  The 
compiler  of  these  books  evidently  attached  little  or  no  importance  to 
accurate  chronology.  For  instance,  the  data  of  2  Kings  xiii.  i,  10, 
do  not  coincide  ;  and  instead  of  entering  into  tedious,  doubtful,  and 

17s 


176  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


predecessors  and  successors,  he  regarded  as  a  perfectly 
innocent  symbolic  adoration  of  Jehovah,  whose  name 
he  bore  and  whose  service  he  professed.  Why  should 
he  do  so  ?  It  had  been  established  now  for  more  than 
two  centuries.  His  father,  in  spite  of  his  passionate 
and  ruthless  zeal  for  Jehovah,  had  never  attempted  to 
disturb  it.  No  prophet — not  even  Elijah  nor  Elisha, 
the  practical  establishers  of  his  dynasty — had  said  one 
word  to  condemn  it.  It  in  no  way  rested  on  his  con- 
science as  an  offence  ;  and  the  formal  condemnation 
of  it  by  the  historian  only  reflects  the  more  enlightened 
judgment  of  the  Southern  Kingdom  and  of  a  later  age. 
But  according  to  the  parenthesis  which  breaks  the 
thread  of  this  king's  story  (2  Kings  xiii.  5,  6),  he  was 
guilty  of  a  far  more  culpable  defection  from  orthodox 
worship  ;  for  in  his  reign,  the  Asherah — the  tree  or 
pillar  of  the  Tyrian  nature-goddess — still  remained  in 
Samaria,  and  therefore  must  have  had  its  worshippers. 
How  it  came  there  we  cannot  tell.  Jezebel  had  set 
it  up  (i  Kings  xvi.  33),  with  the  connivance  of  Ahab. 
Jehu  apparently  had  "  put  it  away  "  with  the  great  stele 
of  Baal  (2  Kings  iii.  2),  but,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
he  had  not  destroyed  it.  It  now  apparently  occupied 
some  public  place,  a  symbol  of  decadence,  and  provo- 
cative of  the  wrath  of  Heaven. 

Jehoahaz  sank  very  low.  Hazael's  savage  sword, 
not  content  with  the  devastation  of  Bashan  and  Gilead, 
wasted  the  west  of  Israel  also  in  all  its  borders.  The 
king  became  a  mere  vassal  of  his  brutal  neighbour 
at  Damascus.     So   little   of  the   barest  semblance   of 

confusing  guesses,  I  have  contented  myself  throughout  with  giving 
for  the  reigns  of  the  kings  such  dates,  or  approximate  dat^s,  as  seem 
to  result  from  the  several  notices  compared  with  the  contemporary 
annals  of  Assyria. 


xiii.-xv.]  THE  DYNASTY  OF  JEHU  i77 


power  was  left  him,  that  whereas,  in  the  reign  of  David, 
Israel  could  muster  an  army  of  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand, and  in  the  reign  of  Joash,  the  son  and  successor 
of  Jehoahaz,  Amaziah  eould  hire  from  Israel  one 
hundred  thousand  mighty  men  of  valour  as  mercenaries, 
Jehoahaz  was  only  allowed  to  maintain  an  army  of 
ten  chariots,  fifty  horsemen,  *and  ten  thousand  infantry  ! 
In  the  picturesque  phrase  of  the  historian,  **  the  King 
of  Syria  had  threshed  down  Israel  to  the  dust,"  in  spite 
of  all  that  Jehoahaz  did,  or  tried  to  do,  and  "  all  his 
might."  How  completely  helpless  the  Israelites  were 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  their  armies  could  offer  no 
opposition  to  the  free  passage  of  the  Syrian  troops 
through  their  land.  Hazael  did  not  regard  them  as 
threatening  his  rear ;  for,  in  the  reign  of  Jehoahaz, 
he  marched  southwards,  took  the  Philistine  city  of 
Gath,  and  threatened  Jerusalem.  Joash  of  Judah  could 
only  buy  them  off  with  the  bribe  of  all  his  treasures, 
and  according  to  the  Chronicler  they  "  destroyed  all  the 
princes  of  the  people,"  and  took  great  spoil  to  Damascus.^ 

Where  was  Elisha  ?  After  the  anointing  of  Jehu 
he  vanishes  from  the  scene.  Unless  the  narrative  of 
the  siege  of  Samaria  has  been  displaced,  we  do  not  so 
much  as  once  hear  of  him  for  nearly  half  a  century. 

The  fearful  depth  of  humiliation  to  which  the  king 
was  reduced  drove  him  to  repentance.  Wearied  to 
death  of  the  Syrian  oppression  of  which  he  was  the 
daily  witness,  and  of  the  utter  misery  caused  by 
prowling  bands  of  Ammonites  and  Moabites — jackals 
who  waited  on  the  Syrian  Hon — Jehoahaz  **  besought 
the  Lord,"^  and  the  Lord  hearkened  unto  him,  and  gave 


'  2  Chron.  xxiv.  23. 

-2    Kines    xiii.    4;     "besought,"'    literally    "stroked  the   face   0/' 
(l  Sam.  xiii.  12  ;  i  Kings  xiii.  6). 

12 


178  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Israel  a  saviour,  so  that  they  went  out  from  under  the 
hand  of  the  Syrians  :  and  the  children  of  Israel  dwelt 
in  their  tents,  as  beforetime."  If  this  indeed  refers  to 
events  which  come  out  of  place  in  the  memoirs  of 
Elisha  ;  and  if  Jehoahaz  ben-Jehu,  not  Jehoram  ben- 
Ahab,  was  the  king  in  whose  reign  the  siege  of  Samaria 
was  so  marvellously  raised,  then  Elisha  may  possibly 
be  the  temporary  deliverer  who  is  here  alluded  to.* 
On  this  supposition  we  may  see  a  sign  of  the  repent- 
ance of  Jehoahaz  in  the  shirt  of  sackcloth  which  he 
wore  under  his  robes,  as  it  became  visible  to  his 
starving  people  when  he  rent  his  clothes  on  hearing  the 
cannibal  instincts  which  had  driven  mothers  to  devour 
their  own  children.  But  the  respite  must  have  been 
brief,  since  Hazael  (ver.  22)  oppressed  Israel  all  the 
days  of  Jehoahaz.  If  this  rearrangement  of  events 
be  untenable,  we  must  suppose  that  the  repentance  of 
Jehoahaz  was  only  so  far  accepted,  and  his  prayer  so 
far  heard,  that  the  deliverance,  which  did  not  come  in 
his  own  days,  came  in  those  of  his'  son  and  of  his 
grandson. 

Of  him  and  of  his  wretched  reign  we  hear  no  more  ; 
but  a  very  different  epoch  dawned  with  the  accession 
of  his  son  Joash,  named  after  the  contemporary  King 
of  Judah,  Joash  ben-Ahaziah. 

In  the  Books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  Joash  of 
Israel  is  condemned  with  the  usual  refrains  about  the 
sins  of  Jeroboam.  No  other  sin  is  laid  to  his  charge  ; 
and  breaking  the  monotony  of  reprobation  which  tells 
us  of  every  king  of  Israel  without  exception  that  "  he 
did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord," 
Josephus  boldly  ventures  to  call  him  "  a  good  man, 
and  the  antithesis  to  his  father." 

'  The  reference  is  usually  explained  of  Jeroboam  II. 


xiii-xv.]  THE  DYNASTY  OF  JEHU  179 

He  reigned  sixteen  years.  At  the  beginning  of  his 
reign  he  found  his  country  the  despised  prey,  not  only 
of  Syria,  but  of  the  paltry  neighbouring  bandit-she3^khs 
who  infested  the  east  of  the  Jordan ;  he  left  it  com- 
paratively strong,  prosperous,  and  independent. 

In  his  reign  we  hear  again  of  Elisha,  now  a  very 
old  man  of  past  eighty  years.  Nearly  half  a  century 
had  elapsed  since  the  grandfather  of  Joash  had 
destroyed  the  house  of  Ahah  at  the  prophet's  command. 
News  came  to  the  king  that  Elisha  was  sick  of  a 
mortal  sickness,  and  he  naturally  went  to  visit  the 
death-bed  of  one  who  had  called  his  dynasty  to  the 
throne,  and  had  in  earlier  years  played  so  memorable 
a  part  in  the  history  of  his  country.  He  found  the  old 
man  dying,  and  he  wept  over  him,  crying,  ''  My  father, 
my  father  I  the  chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen 
thereof"^  The  address  strikes  us  with  some  surprise. 
Elisha  had  indeed  delivered  Samaria  more  than  once 
when  the  city  had  been  reduced  to  direst  extremity  ; 
but  in  spite  of  his  prayers  and  of  his  presence,  the  sins 
of  Israel  and  her  kings  had  rendered  this  chariot  of 
Israel  of  very  small  avail.  The  names  of  Ahab,  Jehu, 
Jehoahaz,  call  up  memories  of  a  series  of  miseries  and 
humiliations  which  had  reduced  Israel  to  the  very  verge 
of  extinction.  For  sixty-three  years  Elisha  had  been 
the  prophet  of  Israel ;  and  though  his  public  inter- 
positions had  been  signal  on  several  occasions,  they  had 
not  been  availing  to  prevent  Ahab  from  becoming  the 
vassal  of  Assyria,  nor  Israel  from  becoming  the  ap- 
.panage  of  the  dominion  of  that  Hazael  whom  Elisha 
himself  had  anointed  King  of  Syria,  and  who  had 
become  of  all  the  enemies  of  his  country  the  most 
persistent  and  the  most  implacable. 
'  Comp.  2  Kings  ii.  12. 


i8o  THE  SECOND   BOOK   OE  KTNGS 


The  narrative  which  follows  is  very  singular.  We 
must  give  it  as  it  occurs,  with  but  little  apprehension 
of  its  exact  significance. 

Elisha,  though  Joash  "did  that  which  was  evil  in 
the  sight  of  the  Lord,"  seems  to  have  regarded  him 
with  affection.  He  bade  the  youth  take  his  bow,^  and 
laid  his  feeble,  trembling  hands  on  the  strong  hands 
of  the  king.  Then  he  ordered  an  attendant  to  fling 
open  the  lattice,  and  told  the  king  to  shoot  eastward 
towards  Gilead,  the  region  whence  the  bands  of  Syria 
made  their  way  over  the  Jordan.  The  king  shot,  and 
the  fire  came  back  into  the  old  prophet's  eye  as  he 
heard  the  arrow  whistle  eastward.  He  cried,  "The 
arrow  of  Jehovah's  deliverance,  even  the  arrow  of 
victor}^  over  Syria  :  for  thou  shalt  smite  the  Syrians 
in  Aphek,  till  thou  have  consumed  them.""^  Then  he 
bade  the  young  king  to  take  the  sheaf  of  arrows,  and 
smite  towards  the  ground,  as  if  he  was  striking  down 
an  enemy.  Not  understanding  the  significance  of  the 
act,  the  king  made  the  sign  of  thrice  striking  the  arrows 
downwards,  and  then  naturally  stopped.^  But  Elisha 
was  angry — or  at  any  rate  grieved.*  "  You  should 
have  smitten  five  or  six  times,"  he  said,  "  and  then  you 
would  have  smitten  Syria  to  destruction.  Now  you 
shall  only  smite  Syria  thrice."  The  king's  fault  seems 
to  have  been  lack  of  energy  and  faith. 

There  are  in  this  story  some  peculiar  elements  which 
it  is  impossible  to   explain,    but  it    has    one   beautiful 

'  Lit.,  "  Make  thine  hand  to  ride  upon  thy  bow."  There  is  not  the 
slightest  taint  of  belomancy  in  the  story  (comp.  Ezek.  xxi.  2i),  nor 
does  it  allude  to  shooting  an  arrow  into  an  enemy's  country  as  a 
declaration  of  war  (Virg.,  ^n,,  ix.  57). 

-  Aphek,  a  name  of  good  omen  (i  Kings  xx.  26-30). 

^  Thrice."  Comp.  Num.  xxii.  28;  Exod.  xxiii.  17,  etc. 

'  LXX.,  iXvir-ZiOv. 


xiii.-xv.]  THE  DYNASTY  OF  JEHU  i8i 

and  striking  feature.  It  tells  us  of  the  death-bed  of 
a  prophet.  Most  of  God's  greatest  prophets  have 
perished  amid  the  hatred  of  priests  and  worldlings. 
The  progress  of  the  truth  they  taught  has  been  "  from 
scaftbld  to  scaffold,  and  from  stake  to  stake." 

"  Careless  seems  the  Great  Avenge;-.     History's  pages  but  record 
One  death-grapple    in   the    darkness   'twixt   old   systems  and    the 

Word- 
Truth  for  ever  on  the  scaffold,  wrong  for  ever  on  the  throne ; 
Yet  that  scaffold  sways  the  Future,  and  behind  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above  His  own ! " 

Now  and  then,  however,  as  an  exception,  a  great 
prophetic  teacher  or  reformer  escapes  the  hatred  of 
the  priests  and  of  the  world,  and  dies  in  peace, 
Savonarola  is  burnt,  Huss  is  burnt,  but  Wiclif  dies 
in  his  bed  at  Lutterworth,  and  Luther  died  in  peace 
at  Eisleben.  Elijah  passed  away  in  storm,  and  was 
seen  no  more.  A  king  comes  to  weep  by  the  death-bed 
of  the  aged  Elisha.  "For  us,"  it  has  been  said,  "the 
scene  at  his  bedside  contains  a  lesson  of  comfort  and 
even  encouragement.  Let  us  try  to  realise  it.  A  man 
with  no  material  power  is  dying  in  the  capital  of  Israel, 
He  is  not  rich  :  he  holds  no  office  which  gives  him  any 
immediate  control  over  the  actions  of  men ;  he  has  but 
one  weapon — the  power  of  his  word.  Yet  Israel's  king 
stands  weeping  at  his  bedside — weeping  because  this 
inspired  messenger  of  Jehovah  is  to  be  taken  from 
him.  In  him  both  king  and  people  will  lose  a  mighty 
support,  for  this  man  is  a  greater  strength  to  Israel 
than  chariots  and  horsemen  are.  Joash  does  well  to 
mourn  for  him,  for  he  has  had  courage  to  wake  the 
nation's  conscience  ;  the  might  of  his  personality  has 
sufficed  to  turn  them  in  the  true  direction,  and  rouse 
their  moral  and   religious  life.       Such  men  as   Elisha 


1 82  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

everywhere  and  always  give  a  strength  to  their  people 
above  the  strength  of  armies,  for  the  true  blessings  of  a 
nation  are  reared  on  the  foundations  of  its  moral  force." 

The  annals  are  here  interrupted  to  introduce  a 
posthumous  miracle — unlike  any  other  in  the  whole 
Bible — wrought  by  the  bones  of  Elisha.  He  died,  and 
they  buried  him,  "giving  him,"  as  Josephus  sa^'S,  "a 
magnificent  burial."  As  usual,  the  spring  brought  with 
it  the  marauding  bands  of  Moabites.  Some  Israelites 
who  were  burying  a  man  caught  sight  of  them,  and, 
anxious  to  escape,  thrust  the  man  into  the  sepulchre 
of  Elisha,  which  happened  to  be  nearest  at  hand.  But 
when  he  was  placed  in  the  rocky  tomb,  and  touched 
the  bones  of  Elisha,  he  revived,  and  stood  up  on  his 
feet.  Doubtless  the  story  rests  on  some  real  circum- 
stance. There  is,  however,  something  singular  in  the 
turn  of  the  original,  which  says  (literall}'^)  that  the  man 
went  and  touched  the  bones  of  Elisha ; '  and  there  is 
proof  that  the  story  was  told  in  varying  forms,  for 
Josephus  says  that  it  was  the  Moabite  plunderers  who 
had  killed  the  man,  and  that  he  was  thrown  by  them 
into  Elisha's  tomb.^  It  is  easy  to  invent  moral  and 
spiritual  lessons  out  of  this  incident,  but  not  so  easy 
to  see  what  lesson  is  intended  by  it.  Certainly  there 
is  not  throughout  Scripture  any  other  passage  which 
even  seems  to  sanction  any  suspicions  of  magic  potency 
in  the  relics  of  the  dead.^ 

But  Elisha's  symbolic  prophecy  of  deliverance  from 
Syria  v/as  amply  fulfilled.  About  this  time  Hazael  had 
died,  and  had  left  his  power  in  the  feebler  hands  of  his 

'  See  R.V.,  margin. 
''  Atttt.,  IX.  viii.  6. 

^  See  Ecclus.  xlviii.   13:    "When  he  was  dead,  he  prophesied  in 
the  tomb."     (But  the  clause  may  be  spurious.) 


xiii.-xv.]  THE  DYNASTY  OF  JEHU  183 

son  Benhadad  III.  Jehoahaz  had  not  been  able  to 
make  any  way  against  him  (2  Kings  xiii.  3),  but  Joash 
his  son  thrice  met  and  thrice  defeated  him  at  Aphek. 
As  a  consequence  of  these  victories,  he  won  back  all 
the  cities  which  Hazael  had  taken  from  his  father  on 
the  west  of  Jordan.  The  east  of  Jordan  was  never 
recovered.  It  fell  under  the  shadow  of  Assyria,  and 
was  practically  lost  for  ever  to  the  tribes  of  Israel. 

Whether  Assyria  lent  her  help  to  Joash  under  certain 
conditions  we  do  not  know.  Certain  it  is  that  from 
this  time  the  terror  of  Syria  vanishes.  The  Assyrian 
king  Rammanirari  III.  about  this  time  subjugated  all 
Syria  and  its  king,  whom  the  tablets  call  Mari,  perhaps 
the  same  as  Benhadad  III.  In  the  next  reign  Damascus 
itself  fell  into  the  power  of  Jeroboam  II.,  the  son  of 
Joash. 

One  more  event,  to  which  we  have  already  alluded, 
is  narrated  in  the  reign  of  this  prosperous  and  valiant 
king. 

Amity  had  reigned  for  a  century  between  Judah  and 
Israel,  the  result  of  the  politic-impolitic  alliance  which 
Jehoshaphat  had  sanctioned  between  his  son  Jehoram 
and  the  daughter  of  Jezebel.  It  was  obviously  most 
desirable  that  the  two  small  kingdoms  should  be  united 
as  closely  as  possible  by  an  offensive  and  defensive 
alliance.  But  the  bond  between  them  was  broken  by 
the  overweening  vanity  of  Amaziah  ben-Joash  of  Judah. 
His  victory  over  the  Edomites,  and  his  conquest  of 
Petra,  had  puffed  him  up  with  the  mistaken  notion 
that  he  was  a  very  great  man  and  an  invincible  warrior. 
He  had  the  wicked  infatuation  to  kindle  an  unprovoked 
war  against  the  Northern  Tribes.  It  [was  the  most 
wanton  of  the  many  instances  in  which,  if  Ephraim 
did  not  envy  Judah,  at   least  Judah   vexed  Ephraim, 


184  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Amaziah  challenged  Joash  to  come  out  to  battle,  that 
they  might  look  one  another  in  the  face.  He  had  not 
recognised  the  difference  between  fighting  with  and 
without  the  sanction  of  the  God  of  battles. 

Joash  had  on  his  hands  enough  of  necessary  and 
internecine  war  to  make  him  more  than  indifferent  to 
that  bloody  game.  Moreover,  as  the  superior  of  Amaziah 
in  every  way,  he  saw  through  his  inflated  emptiness. 
He  knew  that  it  was  the  worst  possible  policy  for 
Judah  and  Israel  to  weaken  each  other  in  fratricidal 
war,  while  Syria  threatened  their  northern  and  eastern 
frontiers,  and  while  the  tread  of  the  mighty  march 
of  Assyria  was  echoing  ominously  in  the  ears  of  the 
nations  from  afar.  Better  and  kinder  feelings  may 
have  mingled  with  these  wise  convictions.  He  had 
no  wish  to  destroy  the  poor  fool  who  so  vaingloriously 
provoked  his  superior  might.  His  answer  was  one  of 
the  most  crushingly  contemptuous  pieces  of  irony  which 
history  records,  and  yet  it  was  eminently  kindly  and 
good-humoured.  It  was  meant  to  save  the  King  of 
Judah  from  advancing  any  further  on  the  path  of 
certain  ruin. 

"  The  thistle  that  was  in  Lebanon  "  (such  was  the 
apologue  which  he  addressed  to  his  would-be  rival) 
"  sent  to  the  cedar  that  was  in  Lebanon,  saying  :  Give 
thy  daughter  to  my  son  to  wife.^  The  cedar  took  no 
sort  of  notice  of  the  thistle's  ludicrous  presumption,  but 
a  wild  beast  that  was  in  Lebanon  passed  by,  and  trod 
down  the  thistle." 

It  was  the  answer  of  a  giant   to  a  dwarf;  ^  and  to 

'  Possibly  some  matrimonial  proposal  may  have  lain  behind  the 
interchange  of  messages. 

'^  Stadc.  For  similar  parables  sec  Judg.  ix.  8;  Herod.,  i.  141; 
Rawlinson,  Anc.  Mon.,  iii.  226. 


xiii.-xv.]  THE  DYNASTY  OF  JEHU  185 


make  it  quite  clear  to  the  humblest  comprehension, 
Joash  good-naturedly  added  :  "You  are  puffed  up  with 
your  victory  over  Edom  :  glory  in  this,  and  stay  at 
home.  Why  by  your  vain  meddling  should  you  ruin 
yourself  and  Judah  with  you  ?  Keep  quiet :  I  have 
something  else  to  do  than  to  attend  to  you." 

Happy  had  it  been  for  Amaziah  if  he  had  taken 
warning  !  But  vanity  is  a  bad  counsellor,  and  folly 
and  self-deception — ill-matched  pair — were  whirling  him 
to  his  doom.  Seeing  that  he  was  bent  on  his  own 
perdition,  Joash  took  the  initiative  and  marched  to 
Beth-Shemesh,  in  the  territory  of  Judah.^  There  the 
kings  met,  and  there  Amaziah  was  hopelessly  defeated. 
His  troops  fled  to  their  scattered  homes,  and  he  fell 
into  the  hands  of  his  conqueror.  Joash  did  not  care 
to  take  any  sanguinary  revenge ;  but  much  as  he 
despised  his  enemy,  he  thought  it  necessary  to  teach 
him  and  Judah  the  permanent  lesson  of  not  again 
meddling  to  their  own  hurt.  He  took  the  captive  king 
with  him  to  Jerusalem,  which  opened  its  gates  without 
a  blow.-  We  do  not  know  whether,  like  a  Roman 
conqueror,  he  entered  it  through  the  breach  of  four 
hundred  cubits  which  he  ordered  them  to  make  in  the 
walls,^  but  otherwise  he  contented  himself  with  spoil 
which  would  swell  his  treasure,  and  amply  compensate 
for    the   expenses  of  the   expedition   which    had   been 


'  Beth-Shemesh,  "  the  house  of  the  sun."  It  is  mentioned  in 
I  Sam.  vi.  9,  12,  and  was  a  priestly  city,  and  one  of  Solomon's  store- 
cities  (I  Kings  iv.  9).  It  ultimately  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Philistines  (2  Chron.  xxviii.  i8).  .  It  is  not  the  Beth-Shemesh  of 
Josh.  xix.  22. 

^  Josephus  says  that  this  was  the  fault  of  Amaziah,  whom  Joash  of 
Israel  threatened  with  death  if  Jerusalem  resisted. 

^  This  implies  that  at  least  half  the  northern  wall  was  dismantled — 
the  wall  towards  Ephraim. 


1 86  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

forced  upon  him.  He  ransacked  Jerusalem  for  silver 
and  gold  ;  he  made  Obed-Edom,  the  treasurer,  give  up 
to  him  all  the  sacred  vessels  of  the  Temple,  and  all 
that  was  worth  taking  from  the  palace.  He  also  took 
hostages — probably  from  among  the  number  of  the 
king's  sons — to  secure  immunity  from  further  intrusions. 
It  is  the  first  time  in  Scripture  that  hostages  are 
mentioned.  It  is  to  his  credit  that  he  shed  no  blood, 
and  was  even  content  to  leave  his  defeated  challenger 
with  the  disgraced  phantom  of  his  kingly  power,  till, 
fifteen  years  later,  he  followed  his  father  to  the  grave 
through  the  red  path  of  murder  at  the  hand  of  his  own 
subjects.^ 

After  this  we  hear  no  further  records  of  this  vigorous 
and  able  king,  in  whom  the  characteristics  of  his 
grandfather  Jehu  are  reflected  in  softer  outline.  He 
left  his  son  Jeroboam  II.  to  continue  his  career  of 
prosperity,  and  to  advance  Israel  to  a  pitch  of  greatness 
which  she  had  never  yet  attained,  in  which  she  rivalled 
the  grandeur  of  the  united  kingdom  in  the  earlier  days 
of  Solomon's  dominion. 

'  Some  have  conjectured  that  Amaziah  of  Judah  became  more  or 
less  the  vassal  of  Joash  of  Israel,  and  that  the  vassalage  continued 
till  after  the  death  of  Jeroboam  II.  (i)  For  Jeroboam  II.  held  Elath 
till  his  death,  when  Uzziah  recovered  it  (2  Kings  xiv.  22),  and  he 
certainly  could  not  have  held  this  southern  Judaean  port  if  Judah  was 
entirely  independent ;  and  (2)  we  read  that  Uzziah  did  not  become 
king  at  all  till  the  twenty-seventh  year  of  Jeroboam  II.  But  if 
Amaziah  only  survived  Joash  of  Israel  fifteen  years  (2  Kings  xiv.  17), 
Uzziah  must  have  succeeded  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  Jeroboam.  Is 
the  explanation  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  up  to  that  time — for 
twelve  years — Jeroboam  did  not  allow  the  Judteans  to  elect  a  king? 
or  are  these  among  the  hopeless  confusion  of  synchronism  which 
cannot  be  reconciled  at  all  with  our  present  data? 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE  DYNASTY  OF  JEHU  {continued)— JEROBOAM  H 

B.C.    781—740 

2  Kings  xiv.  23 — 29 

IF  we  had  only  the  history  of  the  kings  to  depend 
upon,  we  should  scarcely  form  an  adequate  con- 
ception either  of  the  greatness  of  Jeroboam  II.  or  of 
the  condition  of  society  which  prevailed  in  Israel 
during  his  long  and  most  prosperous  reign  of  forty- 
one  years  (b.c.  781-740).  In  the  Books  of  Chronicles 
he  is  merely  mentioned  accidentally  in  a  genealogy. 
The  Second  Book  of  Kings  only  devotes  one  verse  to 
him  (xiv.  25)  beyond  the  stock  formulae  of  connection 
so  often  -repeated.  That  verse,  however,  gives  us  at 
least  a  glimpse  of  his  great  importance,  for  it  tells  us 
that  "  he  restored  the  coast  of  Israel  from  the  entering 
of  Hamath  unto  the  sea  of  the  plain."  Those  two 
lines  sufficiently  prove  to  us  that  he  was  by  far  the 
greatest  and  most  powerful  of  all  the  kings  of  Israel, 
as  he  was  also  the  longest-lived  and  had  the  longest 
reign.  His  victories  flung  a  broad  gleam  of  sunset 
over  the  afflicted  kingdom,  and,  for  a  time,  they  might 
have  beguiled  the  Israelites  into  lofty  hopes  for  the 
future ;  but  with  the  death  of  Jeroboam  the  light 
instantly  faded  away,  and  there  was  no  after-glow. 

187 


1 88  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


And  this  sudden  brightness,  if  it  deceived  others, 
did  not  deceive  the  prophets  of  the  Lord.  It 
happened  in  accordance  with  the  promise  of  Jehovah 
given  by  Jonah,  the  son  of  Amittai,  of  Gath-Hepher  ;  ^ 
but  Amos  and  Hosea  saw  that  the  glory  of  the  reign 
was  hollow  and  delusive,  and  that  the  outward  pro- 
sperity did  but  "  skin  and  film  the  ulcerous  place " 
below. 

In  truth,  the  possibiUty  of  this  sudden  outburst  of 
success  was  due  to  the  very  enemy  who,  within  a  few 
years,  was  to  grind  Israel  to  powder.  God  pitied  the 
deplorable  overthrow  of  His  chosen  people  :  He  saw 
that  there  vv^as  neither  slave  nor  freeman — **  neither 
any  shut  up,  nor  any  left  at  large,  nor  any  helper  for 
Israel " ;  and  in  Jeroboam  He  gave  them  the  saviour 
who  had  been  granted  to  the  penitence  of  Jehoahaz."^ 
It  was,  so  to  speak,  a  last  pledge  to  them  of  the  love 
and  mercy  of  Jehovah,  which  gave  them  a  respite, 
and  would  fain  have  saved  them  altogether,  if  they 
had  turned  with  their  whole  heart  to  Him.  And, 
personally,  Jeroboam  II.  seems  to  have  been  one  of 
the  better  kings.  Not  a  single  crime  is  laid  to  his 
charge  ;  for  under  the  circumstances  of  its  deep-rooted 
continuance  through  the  reigns  of  all  his  predecessors, 
it  cannot  be  deemed  a  heinous  crime  that  he  did  not 
put  down  the  symbolic  cult  of  Jehovah  by  the  cherubic 
emblems  at  Dan  and  Bethel.  The  fact  that  he  had 
been  named  after  the  founder  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel 

'  2  Kings  xiv.  25-27.  There  are  other  allusions  to  the  historic 
events  in  2  Kings  x.  32,  33,  xiii.  3-7,  22-25.  Hitzig  conjectures 
that  Isa.  XV.,  xvi.,  are  '"a  burden  of  Moab  "  quoted  from  Jonah. 

-  2  Kings  xiii.  5,  "The  Lord  gave  Israel  a  saviour";  xiv.  27, 
"  And  He  saved  them  by  the  hand  of  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Joash." 
Some  suppose  the  saviour  to  be  the  Assyrian  King. 


xiv.  23-29.]  JEROBOAM  II  189 


shows  that  the  kingdom  was  proud  of  the  vaHant  and 
Heaven-commissioned  rebel  who  had  thrown  off  the 
yoke  of  the  house  of  Solomon.  The  house  of  Jehu 
admired  his  policy  and  his  institutions.  The  son  of 
Nebat  did  not  by  any  means  appear  in  the  eyes  of 
his  people  as  only  worthy  of  the  monotonous  epitaph, 
"  who  made  Israel  to  sin."  It  is  true  that  now  the 
voice  of  prophecy  in  Israel  itself  began  to  denounce  the 
concomitants  of  the  "calf-worship";  but  the  voices  of 
the  Jewish  herdsman  of  Tekoa  and  of  the  Israelite 
Hosea  probably  raised  but  faint  murmurs  in  the  ears 
of  the  warrior-king,  with  whom  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  come  into  personal  contact.  In  no  case  would 
he  rank  them  as  equal  in  importance  with  the  fiery 
Elijah  or  the  king-making  Elisha,  who  had  been  for 
four  generations  the  counsellor  of  his  race.  Neither 
of  those  great  prophets  had  insisted  on  the  Deuter- 
onomic  law  of  a  centralised  worship,  nor  had  they 
denounced  the  revered  local  sanctuaries  with  which 
Israel  had  been  so  long  familiar.  Jonah,  indeed— who, 
if  legend  be  correct,  had  been  the  boy  of  Zarephath, 
and  the  personal  attendant  of  Elijah — had  predicted 
the  king's  unbroken  success,  and  had  neither  made  it 
conditional  on  a  religious  revolution,  nor,  so  far  as  we 
know,  had  in  any  way  censured  the  existing  institutions. 
What  rendered  Jeroboam's  glory  possible  was  the 
immediate  paralysis  and  imminent  ruin  of  the  power 
of  Syria.  The  Israelitish  king  was  probably  on  good 
terms  with  Assyria,  and,  during  this  epoch,  three 
Assyrian  monarchs  had  struck  blow  after  blow  against 
the  house  of  Hazael.  Damascus  and  its  dependencies 
had  received  shattering  defeats  at  the  hands  of 
Rammanirari  III.,  Shalmaneser  III.  (782-772),  and 
Assurdan    III.    (772-754).      Rammanirari    had    made 


1 9b  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


expeditions  against  Damascus  (773)  and  Hazael  (772) ; 
and  Assurdan  had  invaded  the  Syrian  domains  in  "jGy, 
755,  and  754.  Syria  had  more  than  enough  to  do  to 
hold  her  own  in  a  struggle  for  life  and  death  against 
her  atrocious  neighbour.  With  Uzziah  in  Judah, 
Jeroboam  II.  seems  to  have  been  on  the  friendliest 
terms ;  and  probably  Uzziah  acted  as  a  half-independent 
vassal,  united  with  him  by  common  interests.  The 
day  for  Assyria  to  threaten  Israel  had  not  yet  come. 
Syria  lay  in  the  path;  and  Assurdan  III.  had  been 
succeeded  by  Assurnirari,  who  gave  the  world  the 
unusual  spectacle  of  a  peaceful  Assyrian  king. 

Jeroboam  II.,  therefore,  was  free  to  enlarge  his 
domains  ;  and  unless  there  be  a  little  patriotic  exaggera- 
tion in  the  extent  and  reality  of  his  prowess,  he 
exercised  at  least  a  nominal  suzerainty  over  a  realm 
nearly  as  extensive  as  that  of  David.  He  first  advanced 
against  Damascus,  and  so  far  "recovered"  it  as  to 
make  it  acknowledge  his  rule.^  His  father  Joash  had 
won  back  all  the  Israelite  cities  which  Benhadad  III. 
had  taken  from  Jehoahaz ;  and  Jeroboam,  if  he  did  not 
absolutely  reconquer  the  district  east  of  Jordan,  yet 
kept  it  in  check  and  repressed  the  predatory  incur- 
sions of  the  Emirs  of  Moab  and  Ammon.""^     He   thus 


'  It  had  owned  the  feudal  supremacy  of  David  (2  Sam.  viii.  6),  and 
Ahab  had  extorted  the  privilege  of  having  bazaars  there  (l  Kings 
XX.  34).  Considering  how  immense  had  been  the  resources  of 
Damascus  (2  Kings  vi.  14),  which  had  once  been  able  to  send  to 
battle  twelve  thousand  war-chariots  {Eponyni  Canon,  p.  108)  under 
Benhadad,  we  see  how  fearfully  the  Syrian  capital  must  have  been 
weakened. 

^  If  Isa.  XV.  I,  2,  refers  to  this  invasion  of  Jeroboam  II.,  as  Hitzig 
first  conjectured,  we  infer  that  he  had  taken  both  Ar  of  Moab 
(Rabbath)  and  Kir  of  Moab,  a  strong  fortress  on  a  hill,  by  night 
assaults ;  and  that  he  had  also  captured  Dibon,  Nebo,  and  Medeba, 
and  inflicted  on  them   summary  chastisement.     It  appears  that  the 


xiv.  23-29.]  JEROBOAM  II  191 

extended  the  border  of  Israel  to  the  sea  of  the  Arabah 
and  "  the  brook  of  willows  "  which  divides  Edom  from 
Moab.^  But  this  was  not  all.  He  pushed  his  conquests 
two  hundred  miles  northwards  of  Samaria,  and  became 
lord  of  Hamath  the  Great.  Ascending  the  gorge  of 
the  Litany  between  the  chains  of  Libanus  and  Anti- 
libanus,  which  formed  the  northern  limit  of  Israel, 
and  following  the  river  to  its  source  near  Baalbek, 
.he  then  descended  the  Valley  of  the  Orontes,  which 
constitutes  the  "  pass  "  or  "  entering  in  "  of  Hamath. 
Hamath  was  a  town  of  the  Hittites,  the  most  powerful 
race  of  ancient  Canaan.  They  were  not  of  Semitic 
origin,  but  spoke  a  separate  language.  They  were  the 
last  great  branch  of  the  once  famous  and  dominant 
Khetas,  whose  former  importance  has  only  recently  been 
revealed  by  their  deciphered  inscriptions.  A  century 
and  a  half  earlier  the  Hamathites  had  thrown  off  the 
yoke  of  Solomon,  and  they  governed  nearly  a  hundred 
dependent  cities.  In  alliance  with  the  Phoenicians  and 
Syrians,  they  had  been  valuable  members  of  a  league, 
which,  though  defeated,  had  long  formed  a  barrier 
against  the  southward  movement  of  the  Assyrians. 
How  striking  was  the  conquest  of  this  city  by  Jeroboam 
is  shown  by  the  title  of  "  Hamath  the  Great,"  bestowed 
upon  it  by  the  contemporary  prophets,^  with  whom 
literary  prophecy  begins. 

Moabites  had  advanced  northwards  from  the  Arnon,  while  Hazael 
occupied  Ramoth-Gilead,  and  had  seized  part  of  the  tribe  of  Reuben, 
Jeroboam  II.  first  expelled  them,  and  then  invaded  their  own  proper 
country.  Hitzig  conjectures  that  Isa.  xv.,  xvi.,  are  really  an  old 
prophecy — perhaps  by  Jonah,  son  of  Amittai — which  Isaiah  quotes,  and 
to  which  he  adds  two  verses  (Isa.  xvi.  12,  13).  In  such  overthrow 
Moab  must  have  learnt  to  be  ashamed  of  Chemosh  (Jer.  xlviii.  13). 

'  Isa.  XV.  7  ;  Amos  vi.  14. 

^  Amos  vi.  2. 


192  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


The  result  of  these  conquests  was  unwonted  peace. 
Agriculture  once  more  became  possible,  when  the 
farmers  of  Israel  were  secure  that  their  crops  would 
not  be  reaped  by  plundering  Bedouin.  Intercourse 
with  neighbouring  nations  was  revived,  as  in  the 
golden  daj's  of  Solomon,  though  it  was  regarded  with 
suspicion/  Civilisation  softened  something  of  the  old 
brutality.  Prophecy  assumed  a  different  type,  and 
literature  began  to  dawn. 

But  to  this  state  of  things  there  was,  as  we  learn 
from  the  contemporary  prophets  Amos  and  Hosea,  a 
darker  side.  Of  Jonah  we  know  nothing  more ;  for  it 
is  impossible  to  see  in  the  Book  of  Jonah  much  more 
than  a  beautiful  and  edifying  story,  which  may  or 
may  not  rest  on  some  surviving  legends.  It  differs 
from  every  other  prophetic  book  by  beginning  with  the 
word  "And,"  and  its  late  origin  and  legendary  character 
cannot  any  longer  be  reasonably  disputed.^  We  may 
hope,  therefore,  that  the  Northern  prophet,  whose 
home  was  not  far  from  Nazareth,  was  not  quite  the 
morose  and  ruthless  grumbler  so  strikingly  portrayed 
in  the  book  which  bears  his  name.  Of  any  historical 
intervention  of  his  in  the  affairs  of  Jeroboam  we  know 
nothing  further  than  the  recorded  promise  of  the  king's 
prosperity. 

'  Merchandise  had  hitherto  been  considered  discreditable  for  a  pure 
Jew,  so  that  a  trader  is  called  a  Canaanite  (Hos.  xii.  7,  8). 

^  See  the  writer's  Minor  Prophets  ("Men  of  the  Bible"  Scries),  pp. 
231-243. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

AMOS,   HOSEA,   AND    THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL 

2  Kings  xiv.  23 — 29 ;  xv.  8 — 12 

"  In  them  is  plainest  taught  and  easiest  learnt 
What  makes  a  nation  happy  and  keeps  it  so, 
What  ruins  kingdoms  and  lays  cities  flat." 

Milton,  Paradise  Regained. 

"  We  see  dimly  in  the  Present  what  is  small  and  what  is  great, 
Slow  of  faith  how  weak  an  arm  may  turn  the  iron  helm  of  Fate : 
But  the  soul  is  still  oracular :  amid  the  market's  din 
List  the  ominous  stern  whisper  from  the  Delphic  cave  within, 
'They  enslave  their   childrea's   children   who   make  compromise 
with  sin.'"  Lowell. 

AMOS  and  Hosea  are  the  two  earliest  prophets 
whose  '*  burdens  "  have  come  down  to  us.  From 
them  we  gain  a  near  insight  into  the  internal  condition 
of  Israel  in  this  day  of  her  prosperity. 

We  see,  first,  that  the  prosperity  was  not  unbroken. 
Though  peace  reigned,  the  people  were  not  left  to  lapse 
unwarned  into  sloth  and  godlessness.  The  land  had 
suffered  from  the  horrible  scourge  of  locusts,  until  every 
carmel — every  garden  of  God  on  hill  and  plain — 
withered  before  them.^  There  had  been  widespread 
conflagrations ;  ^  there  had  been  a  visitation  of  pesti- 
lence ;  and,  finally,  there  had   been  an  earthquake  so 

'  Amos  vii.   i.     Famine  (iv.   6);  drought  (iv.  7,  8);  yellow  blight 
and  locusts  (iv.  9) ;  pestilence  (iv.  10) ;  earthquake  and  burning  (iv.  1 1). 
^  Amos  vii.  4. 

m  13 


194  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


violent  that  it  constituted  an  epoch  from  which  dates 
were  reckoned.^  There  were  also  two  eclipses  of  the  sun, 
which  darkened  with  fear  the  minds  of  the  superstitious." 
Nor  was  this  the  worst.  Civilisation  and  commerce 
had  brought  luxury  in  their  train,  and  all  the  bonds  of 
morality  had  been  relaxed.  The  country  began  to  be 
comparatively  depleted,  and  the  innocent  regularity  of 
agricultural  pursuits  palled  upon  the  young,  who  were 
seduced  by  the  glittering  excitement  of  the  growing 
towns.  All  zeal  for  religion  was  looked  on  as  archaic, 
and  the  splendour  of  formal  services  was  regarded  as 
a  sufficient  recognition  of  such  gods  as  there  were.  As 
a  natural  consequence,  the  nobles  and  the  wealthy 
classes  were  more  and  more  infected  with  a  gross 
materialism,  which  displayed  itself  in  ostentatious  furni- 
ture, and  sumptuous  palaces  of  precious  marbles  inlaid 
with  ivory.  The  desire  for  such  vanities  increased 
the  thirst  for  gold,  and  avarice  replenished  its  exhausted 
coffers  by  grinding  the  faces  of  the  poor,  by  defrauding 
the  hireling  of  his  v/ages,  by  selling  the  righteous  for 
silver,  the  needy_for  handfuls  of  barley,  and  the  poor 
for  a  pair  of  shoes.  The  degrading  vice  of  intoxication 
acquired  fresh  vogue,  and  the  gorgeous  gluttonies  of 
the  rich  were  further  disgraced  by  the  shameful  spectacle 

'  Amos  i.  I,  iii.  14,  iv.  Ii,  viii.  8;  Zech.  xiv.  5  •_  "Ye  shall  flee  like 
as  ye  fled  before  the  earthquake  in  the  days  of  Uzziah."  Josephus 
says  that  in  an  earthquake  a  little  before  the  birth  of  Christ  ten 
thousand  were  buried  under  the  ruined  houses  {Antt.,  XV.  v.  2), 
and  he  has  many  Rabbinic  haggadoth  to  tell  us  about  the  earthquake, 
which,  he  says,  happened  at  the  moment  when  Uzziah  burnt  incense 
i  1  the  Temple  {Anlt.,  IX.  x.  4). 

-  According  to  Hind,  they  took  place  on  June  15th,  B.C.  763,  and 
February  9th,  B.C.  7S4.  Amos  alludes  to  the  capture  of  Gath  by 
Uzziah,  of  Calneh  {Ktcsiphoii),  and  of  Hamath  (vi.  2  ;  2  Chron.  xxvi.  6). 
Gath  henceforth  disappears  from  the  PhilistianPcntapolis  (Amosi.  7,  8; 
Zeph.  ii.  4;  Zech.  ix.  5), 


xiv.  23-29.]      AMOS  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL       195 

of  drunkards,  who  lolled  for  hours  over  the  revelries 
which  were  inflamed  by  voluptuous  music.  Worst  of 
all,  the  purity  of  family  life  was  invaded  and  broken 
down.  Throwing  aside  the  old  veiled  seclusion  of 
women  in  Oriental  life,  the  ladies  of  Israel  showed 
themselves  in  the  streets  in  all  "  the  bravery  of  their 
tinkling  ornaments  of  gold,"  and  sank  into  the  adulterous 
courses  stimulated  by  their  pampered  effrontery. 

Such  is  the  picture  which  we  draw  from  the  burning 
denunciations  of  the  peasant-prophet  of  Tekoa.  He 
was  no  prophet  nor  prophet's  son,  but  a  humble 
gatherer  of  sycomore-fruit,  a  toil  which  only  fell  to 
the  humblest  of  the  people.^  Who  is  not  afraid,  he 
asks,  when  a  lion  roars  ?  and  how  can  a  prophet  be 
silent  when  the  Lord  God  has  spoken  ?  Indignation 
had  transformed  and  dilated  him  from  a  labourer  into 
a  seer,  and  had  summoned  him  from  the  pastoral 
shades  of  his  native  village — whether  in  Judah  or  in 
Israel  is  uncertain — to  denounce  the  more  flagrant 
iniquities  of  the  Northern  capital.^     First  he  proclaims 

'  Or  "  dresser  of  sycomore-trees  "  (R.V.).  LXX.,  kv'i^uv  avKd/uva  ; 
Vulg.,  velHcans  sycomoros.  The  sycomore-fruit  (fruit  of  the  Ficus 
sycomorus,  or  wild  fig)  is  ripened  by  puncturing  it  (Theoph., 
H.  Plant.,  iv.  2  ;  Pliny,  H.  N.,  xiii.  14). 

^  The  well-known  town  of  Tekoa  had  been  Solomon's  horse-fair, 
and  had  been  fortified  by  Rehoboam  (2  Chron.  xi.  6).  It  lay  in  a  wild 
country  six  miles  south  of  Bethlehem  (2  Chron.  xx.  20;  I  Mace.  ix.  33  ; 
Robinson,  BM.  Res.,  i.  4S6).  For  a  fuller  account  of  these  prophets, 
I  must  refer  to  my  book  on  The  Minor  Prophets  in  the  "  Men  of  the 
Bible  "  Series.  It  has  always  been  assumed  that  Amos  belonged  to 
the  well-known  Tekoa,  and  was  therefore  a  subject  of  the  Southern 
Kingdom.  In  recent  days  this  has  become  uncertain.  No  sycomores 
grow  or  can  grow  on  the  bleak  uplands  of  Tekoa  (Tristram,  Nat.  Hist. 
0/ the  Bible,  p.  397);  so  that  Jerome,  in  his  preface  to  Amos,  thinks 
that  "  brambles  "  are  intended.  Even  Kimchi  conjectured  that  Tekoa 
was  an  unknown  town  in  the  tribe  of  Asher.  Amos's  allusions  to 
scenery  are  all  applicable  to  the  Northern  landscape. 


196  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

the  vengeance  of  Jehovah  upon  the  transgressions  of 
the  Phihstines,  of  Tyre,  of  Edom,  of  Amnion,  of  Moab, 
and  even  of  Judah ;  and  then  he  turns  with  a  crash 
upon  apostatising  Israel.-^  He  speaks  with  unsparing 
plainness  of  their  pitiless  greed,  their  shameless 
debauchery,  their  exacting  usury,  their  attempts  to 
pervert  even  the  abstinent  Nazarites  into  intemperance, 
and  to  silence  the  prophets  by  opposition  and  obloquy. 
Jehovah  was  crushed  under  their  violence,''^  And  did 
they  think  to  go  unscathed  after  such  black  ingratitude  ? 
Nay  !  their  mightiest  should  flee  away  naked  in  the 
day  of  defeat.  Robbery  was  in  their  houses  of  ivory, 
and  the  few  of  them  who  should  escape  the  spoiler 
should  only  be  as  when  a  shepherd  tears  out  of  the 
mouth  of  a  lion  two  legs  and  a  piece  of  an  ear  ?  ^ 
As  for  Bethel,  their  shrine — which  he  calls  Bethaven, 
"House  of  Vanity,"  not  Bethel,  "  House  of  God" — the 
horns  of  its  altars  should  be  cut  off.  Should  oppres- 
sion and  licentiousness  flourish  ?  Jehovah  would  take 
them  with  hooks,  and  their  children  with  fish-hooks, 
and  their  sacrifices  at  Bethel  and  Gilgal  should  be 
utterly  unavailing.  Drought,  and  blasting,  and  mildew, 
and  wasting  plague,  and  earth-convulsions  like  those 
which  had  swallowed  Sodom  and  Gomorrha,  from 
which  they  should  only  be  plucked  as  a  "  firebrand  out 
of  the  burning,"  should  warn  them  that  they  must 
prepare  to  meet  their  God.'*  It  was  lamentable  ;  but 
lamentation  was  vain,  unless  they  would  return  to 
Jehovah,  Lord  of  hosts,^  and  abandon  the  false  worship 


'  Amos  i.  l-ii.  5.  ^  Amos  iii.  9-15. 

■^  Amos  ii.  6-13.  *  Amos  iv.  1-13. 

^  This  title,  "Jehovah-Tsebaoth,"  now  begins  to  occur.  It  is  not 
found  in  the  Hexateuch.  It  probably  means  "Lord  of  the  starry 
hosts."      Contact  with  Assyria  first  made  the  Israelites  acquainted 


xiv.  23-29.]     AMOS  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL        197 

of  Bethel,  Beersheba,  and  Gilgal,  and  listen  to  the 
voice  of  the  righteous,  whom  they  now  abhorred  for 
his  rebukes.  They  talked  hypocritically  about  "  the 
day  of  the  Lord,"  but  to  them  it  should  be  blackness. 
They  relied  on  feast  days,  and  services,  and  sacrifices ; 
but  since  they  would  not  give  the  sacrifice  of  judgment 
and  righteousness,  for  which  alone  God  cared,  they 
should  be  carried  into  captivity  beyond  Damascus  : 
yes !  even  to  that  terrible  Assyria  with  whose  king 
they  now  were  on  friendly  terms.  They  lay  at  ease 
on  their  carved  couches  at  their  delicate  feasts,  drain- 
ing the  wine-bowls,  and  glistering  with  fragrant  oils, 
heedless  of  the  impending  doom  which  would  smite 
the  great  house  with  breaches  and  the  little  house  with 
clefts,  and  which  should  bring  upon  them  an  avenger 
who  should  afflict  them  from  their  conquered  Hamath 
southwards  even  to  the  wady  of  the  wilderness.^ 
The  threatened  judgments  of  locusts  and  fire  had  been 
mitigated  at  the  prophet's  prayer,  but  nothing  could 
avert  the  plumb-line  of  destruction  which  Jehovah  held 
over  them,  and  He  would  rise  against  the  House  of 
Jeroboam  with  His  sword.^  We  infer  from  all  that 
Amos  and  Hosea  say  that  the  calf-worship  at  Bethel 
(for  Dan   is  not  mentioned   in   this  connexion  ^)    had 


with  star-worship.  Amos  alludes  to  the  Pleiades  and  Orion  (v.  8  : 
comp.  Job  ix.  9,  xxxviii.  31).  Star-worship  is  forbidden  in  Deuter- 
onomy. In  Amos  v.  26  the  true  meaning  is  that  the  Israelites  xvould 
take  with  them,  on  their  road  to  exile,  Sakkuth  (Moloch  ?)  and  Kewan 
(the  god-star  Saturn). 

'  Amos  vi.  I-14. 

^  Amos  vii.  1-9. 

^  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  early  authority  for  the  existence  of 
any  calf  at  Dan  is  very  slight,  and  the  extreme  uncertainty  of  the 
reading  and  interpretation  in  one  main  passage  (i  Kings  xii.  32) 
makes  it  at  least  possible  that  there  were  two  calves  at  Bethel,  and  that 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


degenerated  into  an  idolatry  far  more  abject  than  it 
originally  was.  The  familiarity  of  such  multitudes  of 
the  people  with  Baal-worship  and  Asherah-worship 
had  tended  to  obliterate  the  sense  that  the  "  calves " 
were  cherubic  emblems  of  Jehovah  ;  and  were  it  not 
for  some  confusions  of  this  kind,  it  is  inconceivable 
that  Jehoram  ben-Jehu  should  have  restored  the 
Asherah  which  his  father  had  removed.  Be  that  as 
it  may,  Bethel  and  Gilgal  seem  to  have  become  centres 
of  corruption.  Dan  is  scarcely  once  alluded  to  as  a 
scene  of  the  calf-worship. 

Others,  then,  might  be  deceived  by  the  surface-glitter 
of  extended  empire  in  the  days  of  Jeroboam  II.  Not 
.so  the  true  prophets.  It  has  often  happened — as  to 
Persia,  when,  in  B.C.  388,  she  dictated  the  Peace  of 
Antalcidas,  and  to  Papal  Rome  in  the  days  of  the 
Jubilee  of  1300,  and  to  Philip  II.  of  Spain  in  the  year 
of  the  Armada,  and  to  Louis  XIV.  in  1667 — that  a 
nation  has  seemed  to  be  at  its  zenith  of  pomp  and 
power  on  the  very  eve  of  some  tremendous  catastrophe. 
Amos  and  Hosea  saw  that  such  a  catastrophe  was  at 
hand  for  Israel,  because  they  knew  that  Divine  punish- 
ment inevitably  dogs  the  heels  of  insolence  and  crime. 
The  loftiness  of  Israel's  privilege  involved  the  utterness 
of  her  ruin.  "  You  only  have  I  known  of  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  :  therefore  I  will  visit  upon  you 
all  your  iniquities."  ^ 

Such  prophecies,  so  eloquent,  so  uncompromising,  so 
varied,  and  so  constantly  disseminated  among  the 
people,  first  by  public  harangues,  then  in  writing,  could 

at  Dan  there  was  no  calf,  but  only  the  old  idolatrous  ephod  of  Micah, 
still  served  by  the  servant  of  Moses.     See  additional  note  at  the  end 
of  the  volume. 
'  Amos  iii,  2. 


xiv.  23-29.]     AMOS  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL       icj9 


no  longer  be  neglected.  Amos,  with  his  natural 
culture,  his  rhythmic  utterances,  and  his  inextinguishable 
fire,  was  far  different  from  the  wild  fanatics,  with  their 
hairy  garments,  and  sudden  movements,  and  long  locks, 
and  cries,  and  self-inflicted  wounds,  with  whom  Israel 
had  been  familiar  since  the  days  of  Elijah  whom  they 
all  imitated.  So  long  as  this  inspired  peasant  confined 
himself  to  moral  denunciations  the  aristocracy  and 
priesthood  of  Samaria  could  afford  comfortably  to 
despise  him.  What  were  moral  denunciations  to  them  ? 
What  harm  was  there  in  ivor}^  palaces  and  refined 
feasts  ?  This  man  was  a  mere  red  socialist  who  tried 
to  undermine  the  customs  of  society.  The  hold  of  the 
upper  classes  on  the  people,  whom  their  exactions  had 
burdened  with  hopeless  debt,  and  whom  they  could 
with  impunity  crush  into  slavery,  was  too  strong  to 
be  shaken  by  the  "hysteric  gush"  of  a  philanthropic 
faddist  and  temperance  fanatic  like  this.  But  when  he 
had  the  enormous  presumption  to  mention  publicly  the 
name  of  their  victorious  king,  and  to  say  that  Jehovah 
would  rise  against  him  with  the  sword,  it  was  time  for 
the  clergy  to  interfere,  and  to  send  the  intruder  back 
to  his  native  obscurity. 

So  Amaziah,  the  priest  of  Bethel,^  invoked  the  king's 
authority.  "  Amos,"  he  said  to  the  king,  "  hath  con- 
spired against  thee  in  the  midst  of  the  house  of  Israel." 
The  charge  was  grossly  false,  but  it  did  well  enough 
to  serve  the  priest's  purpose.  *'  The  land  is  not  able 
to  bear  all  his  words." 

That  was  true  ;  for  when  nations  have  chosen  to 
abide  by  their  own  vicious  courses,  and  refuse  to  listen 

'  That  the  chief  priest  of  Bethel  bore  the  name  "Jehovah  is 
strong"  shows  once  more  that  "calf-worship"  was  in  no  sense  a 
substitute  for  the  worship  of  Jehovah, 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


to  the  voice  of  warning,  they  are  impatient  of  rebuke. 
They  refuse  to  hear  when  God  calls  to  them. 

"  For  when  we  in  our  viciousness  grow  hard, 
Oh  misery  on  it !  the  wise  gods  seal  our  eyes ; 
In  our  own  filth  drop  our  clear  judgments ;  make  us 
Adore  our  errors ;  laugh  at  us  while  we  strut 
To  our  confusion." 

The  priest  tried  further  to  inflame  the  king's  anger 
by  telling  him  two  more  of  Amos's  supposed  predic- 
tions. He  had  prophesied  (which  was  a  false  inference) 
that  Israel  should  be  led  away  captive  out  of  their 
own  land/  and  had  also  prophesied  (which  was  a 
perversion  of  the  fact)  "that  Jeroboam  should  die  by 
the  sword." 

At  the  first  prophecy  Jeroboam  probably  smiled.  It 
might  indeed  come  true  in  the  long-run.  If  he  was  a 
man  of  prescience  as  well  as  of  prowess,  he  probably 
foresaw  that  the  elements  of  ruin  lurked  in  his  transient 
success,  and  that  though,  for  the  present,  Assyria  was 
occupied  in  other  directions,  it  was  unlikely  that  the 
weaker  Israel  would  escape  the  fate  of  the  far  more 
powerful  Syria.  As  for  the  personal  prophecy,  he  was 
strong,  and  was  honoured,  and  had  his  army  and  his 
guards.  He  would  take  his  chance.  Nor  does  it  seem 
to  have  troubled  any  one  that  Amos  looked  for  the 
ultimate  union  of  Israel  with  Judah.  Since  the  time 
of  Joash  the  inheritance  of  David  had  been  but  as 
"a  ruined  booth"  (ix.  ii);  but  Amos  prophesied  its 
restoration.  This  touch  may  have  been  added  later, 
when  he  wrote  and  published  his  "  burdens  " ;  but  he 


'  This  was  not  quite  accurate;  he  had  rather  prophesied  the 
devastation  of  the  high  places  (vii.  9).  In  fact,  his  words  had  often 
been  very  vague.     "  Tlius  will  I  do  unto  thee"  (iv.  12). 


xiv.  23-29.]      AMOS  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL      201 


did  not  hesitate  to  speak  as  if  the  two  kingdoms  were 
really  and  properly  one.^ 

We  are  not  told  that  Jeroboam  II.  interfered  with 
the  prophet  in  any  way.^  Had  he  done  so,  he  would 
have  been  rebuked  and  denounced  for  it.  He  probably 
went  no  further  than  to  allow  the  priest  and  the 
prophet  to  settle  the  matter  between  themselves.  Per- 
haps he  gave  a  contemptuous  permission  that,  if 
Amaziah  thought  it  worth  while  to  send  the  prophet 
back  into  Judah,  he  might  do  so. 

Armed  with  this  nonchalant  mandate,  Amaziah,  with 
more  mildness  and  good-humour  than  might  have  been 
expected  from  one  of  his  class,  said  to  Amos,  "  O 
Seer,^  go  home,  and  eat  thy  bread,  and  prophesy  to 
thy  heart's  content  at  home  ;  but  do  not  prophesy  any 
more  at  Bethel,  for  it  is  the  king's  sanctuary  and  the 
king's  court." 

Amos  obeyed  perforce,  but  stopped  to  say  that  he 
had  not  prophesied  out  of  his  own  mouth,  but  by 
Jehovah's  bidding.  He  then  hurled  at  the  priest  a 
message  of  doom  as  frightful  as  that  which  Jeremiah 

'  Amos  ix.  II-15.     Comp.  Hos.  iii.  5. 

-  The  exaggerated  haggadoth  of  later  days  say  that  Amaziah  had 
Amos  beaten  with  leaded  thongs,  and  that  he  was  carried  home  in  a 
dying  state  (Epiphan.,  0pp.,  ii.  145)1  to  which  there  is  a  supposed 
allusion  in  Heb.  xi.  35  :  aXXoi  8^  €TVfj.Travl<xdri(fav. 

^  We  cannot  be  sure  that  the  term  "  Seer "  was  meant  to  be 
contemptuous,  although  from  l  Sam.  ix.  9  we  should  infer  that  the 
title  had  become  somewhat  obsolete.  Further,  we  must  bear  in  mind 
that  it  may  not  have  been  always  easy  for  worldlings  to  distinguish 
between  true  prophets  and  the  unprincipled  pretenders  who,  about 
this  time,  succeeded  in  making  the  name  and  aspect  of  a  prophet 
so  complete  a  disgrace  that  men  had  carefully  to  disclaim  it  (Zech. 
xiii.  2-6).  It  is  true  that  the  heading  of  Amos  (i.  i),  which  may  not, 
however,  be  by  the  prophet  himself,  tells  us  of  "  the  words  which  he 
saw'"  {i.e.,  spoke  as  a  seer),  and  he  also  disclaims  the  name  of 
prophet  (vii.   14). 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


pronounced  upon  Pashur,  when  that  priest  smote  him 
on    the    face.      His    wife    should    be    a   harlot   in    the 
city ;    his    sons    and    daughters    should   be   slain ;    his 
inheritance    should    be    divided ;    he    should    die    in    a 
polluted    land ;  and    Israel    should    go    into    captivity. 
And    as    for   his   mission,    he  justified    it   by   the  fact 
that  he   was  not  one    of  an    hereditary    or  a    profes- 
sional community ;    he  was  no    prophet    or    prophet's 
son.     Such   men    might — like    Zedekiah,    the    son    of 
Chenaanah,  and  his  four  hundred  abettors — be  led  into 
mere  function   and  professionalism,  into  manufactured 
enthusiasm   and    simulated    inspiration.       From    such 
communities  freshness,  unconventionality,  courage,  were 
hardly    to    be    expected.       They    would    philippise   at 
times  ;  they  would  get  to   love   their  order  and  their 
privileges  better  than  their  message,    and   themselves 
best  of  all.     It  is  the  tendency  of  organised    bodies 
to  be    tempted  into  conventionality,   and  to  sink  into 
banded  unions  chiefly  concerned  in   the  protection  of 
their  own  prestige.     Not  such  was  Amos.     He  was  a 
peasant    herdsman    in    whose    heart    had    burned    the 
inspiration   of  Jehovah  and    the    wrath  against  moral 
misdoing    till    they    had    burst    into    flame.       It   was 
indignation  against    iniquity  which    had    called    Amos 
from  the  flocks  and   the  sycomores  to  launch  against 
an   apostatising  people  the  menace  of  doom.     In  that 
grief  and  indignation  he  heard  the  voice  and  received 
the  mandate  of  the  Lord  of  hosts.     He  heads  the  long 
line  of  literary  prophets  whose  priceless  utterances  are 
preserved   in    the    Old    Testament.       The    inestimable 
value  of  their  teaching  lies  most  of  all  in  the  fact  that 
they  were — like  Moses — preachers  of  the  moral  law ; 
and  that,  like  the  Book  of  the  Covenant,  which  is  the 
most  ancient  and  the  most  valuable  part  of  the  Laws 


xiv.  23-29.]     HOSEA  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL     203 


of  the  Pentateuch,  they  count  external  service  as  no 
better  than  the  small  dust  of  the  balance  in  comparison 
with  righteousness  and  true  holiness. 

The  rest  of  the  predictions  of  Amos  were  added  at 
a  later  date.  They  dwelt  on  the  certainty  and  the 
awful  details  of  the  coming  overthrow ;  the  doom  of 
the  idolaters  of  Gilgal  and  Beersheba  ;  the  inevitable 
swiftness  of  the  catastrophe  in  which  Samaria  should 
be  sifted  like  corn  in  a  sieve  in  spite  of  her  incorrigible 
security.^  Yet  the  ruin  should  not  be  absolute. 
"  Thus  saith  Jehovah :  As  the  shepherd  teareth  out 
of  the  mouth  of  the  lion  two  legs  and  the  piece  of  an 
ear,  so  shall  the  children  of  Israel  be  rescued,  that  sit 
in  Samaria  on  the  corner  of  a  couch,  and  on  the  damask 
of  a  bed." 

The  Hebrew  Prophets  almost  invariably  weave 
together  the  triple  strands  of  warning,  exhortation, 
and  hope.  Hitherto  Amos  has  not  had  a  word  of 
hope  to  utter.  At  last,  however,  he  lets  a  glimpse 
of  the  rainbow  irradiate  the  gloom.  The  overthrow 
of  Israel  should  be  accompanied  by  the  restoration  of 
the  fallen  booth  of  David,  and,  under  the  rule  of  a 
scion  of  that  house,  Israel  should  return  from  captivity 
to  enjoy  days  of  peaceful  happiness,  and  to  be  rooted 
up  no  more."^ 

Hosea,  the  son  of  Beeri,  was  of  a  somewhat  later 
date  than  Amos.  He,  too,  "  became  electric,"  to  flash 
into  meaner  and  corrupted  minds  the  conviction  that 
formalism  is  nothing,  and  that  moral  sincerity  is  all  in 
all.  That  which  God  requires  is  not  ritual  service, 
but   truth  in  the   inward   parts.      He   is   one   of  the 

'  Amos  viii.  l-ix.  9,  10.  -  Amos  ix.  n-15. 


204  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


saddest  of  the  prophets ;  but  though  he  mingles  pro- 
phecies of  mercy  with  his  menaces  of  wrath,  the 
general  tenor  of  his  oracles  is  the  same.  He  pictures 
the  crimes  of  Ephraim  by  the  image  of  domestic  un- 
faithfulness, and  bids  Judah  to  take  warning  from  the 
curse  involved  in  her  apostasy/  Many  of  his  allusions 
touch  upon  the  days  of  that  deluge  of  anarchy  which 
followed  the  death  of  Jeroboam  II.  (iv.-vi.  3).  That 
he  was  a  Northerner  appears  from  the  fact  that  he 
speaks  of  the  King  of  Israel  as  "  our  king  "  (vii.  5). 
Yet  he  seems  to  blame  the  revolt  of  Jeroboam  I. 
(i.  II,  viii.  4),  although  a  prophet  had  originated  it, 
and  he  openly  aspires  after  the  reunion  of  the  Twelve 
Tribes  under  a  king  of  the  House  of  David  (iii.  5). 
He  points  more  distinctly  to  Ass3^ria,  which  he  fre- 
quently names  as  the  scourge  of  the  Divine  vengeance, 
and  indicates  how  vain  is  the  hope  of  the  party  which 
relied  on  the  alliance  of  Egypt.'^  He  speaks  with  far 
more  distinct  contempt  of  the  cherub  at  Bethel  and 
the  shrine  at  Gilgal,  and  says  scornfully,  "Thy  calf,  O 
Samaria,  has  cast  thee  off."^  Shalmaneser  had  taken 
Beth-Arbel,  and  dashed  to  pieces  mother  and  children. 
Such  would  be  the  fate  of  the  cities  of  Israel.'*  Yet 
Hosea,    like    Amos,    cannot    conclude    with    words    of 

'  Hos.  iv.   15-19. 

^  Hos.  V.  13,  vii.  II,  viii.  9,  ix.  3-6,  xi.  5,  xii.  I,  xiv.  3.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  prove  that 
Assyria  had  burst  into  sight  like  a  lurid  comet  on  the  horizon  far 
earlier  than  we  had  supposed.  Jehu  had  paid  tribute  to  Shalmaneser 
as  far  back  as  b.c.  842,  more  than  a  century  before  Menahem's 
tribute  in  738.  The  destruction  which  Hosea  prophesied  took  place 
within  thirty-one  years  of  his  prophecies — probably  in  B.C.  722, 
when  Sargon  finished  the  siege  of  Samaria  begun  by  Shalmaneser. 
The  king  Hoshea  w^s  perhaps  taken  captive  before  the  siege. 

^  Hos.  viii.  5,  ix,  15. 

*  Hos.  X.  13,  14. 


xiv.  23-29  ]     HOSEA  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL     205 

wrath  and  woe,  and  he  ends  with  a  lovely  song  of  the 
da3'S  when  Ephraim  should  be  restored,  after  her  true 
repentance,  by  the  loving  tenderness  of  God. 

Jeroboam  II.  must  have  been  aware  of  some  at 
least  of  these  prophecies.  Those  of  Hosea  must  have 
impressed  him  all  the  more  because  Hosea  was  a 
prophet  of  his  own  kingdom,  and  all  of  his  allusions 
were  to  such  ancient  and  famous  shrines  of  Ephraim 
as  Mizpeh,  Tabor,  Bethel,  Gilgal,  Shechem,^  Jezreel, 
and  Lebanon.  He  was  the  Jeremiah  of  the  North, 
and  a  passionate  patriotism  breathes  through  his 
melancholy  strains.  Yet  in  the  powerful  rule  of 
Jeroboam  II.  he  can  only  see  a  godless  militarism 
founded  upon  massacre  (i.  4),  and  he  felt  himself  to 
be  the  prophet  of  decadence.  Page  after  page  rings 
with  wailing,  and  with  denunciations  of  drunkenness, 
robbery,  and  whoredom — "swearing,  lying,  killing, 
stealing,  and  adultery "  (iv.   2). 

If  Jeroboam  was  as  wise  and  great  as  he  seemed  to 
have  been,  he  must  have  seen  with  his  own  eyes  the 
ominous  clouds  on  the  far  horizon,  and  the  deep- 
seated  corruption  which  was  eating  like  a  cancer  into 
the  heart  of  his  people.  Probably,  like  many  another 
great  sovereign — like  Marcus  Aurelius  when  he  noted 
the  worthlessness  of  his  son  Commodus,  like  Charle- 
magne when  he  burst  into  tears  at  the  sight  of  the 
ships  of  the  Vikings — his  thoughts  were  like  those  of 
the  ancient  and  modern  proverbs — **  When  I  am  dead, 
let  earth  be  mixed  with  fire."  We  have  no  trace 
that  Jeroboam  treated  Hosea  as  did  those  guilty 
priests  to  whom  he  was  a  rebuke,  and  who  called  him 
"a  fool"  and  "mad"  (ix.  7,  8,  iv.  6-8,  v.  2).  Yet 
the  aged  king — he  must  have  reached  the  unusual  age 

'  Hos.  vi.  9  :  for  "  by  consent"  read  "  towards  Shechem." 


2o6  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


of  seventy-three  at  least,  before  he  ended  the  longest 
and  most  successful  reign  in  the  annals  of  Israel- 
could  hardly  have  anticipated  that  within  half  a  year 
of  his  death  his  secure  throne  would  be  shaken  to  its 
foundation,  his  dynasty  be  hurled  into  oblivion,  and 
that  Israel,  to  whom,  as  long  as  he  lived,  mighty 
kingdoms  had  curtsied,  should, 

"  Like  a  forlorn  and  desperate  castaway, 
Do  shameful  execution  on  herself." 

Yet  so  it  was.  Jeroboam  II.  was  succeeded  by  no 
less  than  six  other  kings,  but  he  was  the  last  who 
died  a  natural  death.  Every  one  of  his  successors  fell 
a  victim  to  the  assassin  or  the  conqueror.  His  son 
Zachariah  ("  Remembered  by  Jehovah  ")  succeeded  him 
(B.C.  740),  the  fourth  in  descent  from  Jehu.  Consider- 
ing the  long  reign  of  his  father,  he  must  have  ascended 
the  throne  at  a  mature  age.  But  he  v/as  the  child 
of  evil  times.  That  he  should  not  interrupt  the  "calf- 
worship  was  a  matter  of  course  ;  but  if  he  be  the  king 
of  whom  we  catch  a  glimpse  in  Hos.  vii.  2-7,  we  see 
that  he  partook  deeply  of  the  depravity  of  his  day. 
We  are  there  presented  with  a  deplorable  picture. 
There  was  thievishness  at  home,  and  bands  of  marauding" 
bandits  began  to  appear  from  abroad.  The  king  was 
surrounded  by  a  desperate  knot  of  wicked  counsellors, 
who  fooled  him  to  the  top  of  his  bent,  and  corrupted 
him  to  the  utmost  of  his  capacity.  They  were  all 
scorners  and  adulterers,  whose  furious  passions  the 
prophet  compares  to  the  glowing  heat  of  an  oven  heated 
by  the  baker.  They  made  the  king  glad  with  their 
wickedness,  and  the  princes  with  lying  flatteries.  On 
the  royal  birthday,  apparently  at  some  public  feast, 
this  band  of  infamous  revellers,  who  were  the  boon 


XV.  8-12.]      HOSE  A  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL      207 


companions  of  Zachariah,  first  made  him  sick  with 
bottles  of  wine,  and  then  having  set  an  ambush  in 
waiting,  murdered  the  effeminate  and  self-indulgent 
debauchee  before  all  the  people.^  The  scene  reads 
like  the  assassination  of  a  Commodus  or  an  Elagabalus. 
No  one  was  likely  to  raise  a  hand  in  his  favour.  Like 
our  Edward  II.,  he  was  a  weakling  who  followed  a 
great  and  warlike  father.  It  was  evident  that  troublous 
times  were  near  at  hand,  and  nothing  but  the  worst 
disasters  could  ensue  if  there  was  no  one  better  than 
such  a  drunkard  as  Zachariah  to  stand  at  the  helm 
of  state. 

So  did  the  dynasty  of  the  mighty  Jehu  expire  like 
a  torch  blown  out  in  stench  and  smoke. 

Its  close  is  memorable  most  of  all  because  it  evoked 
the  magnificent  moral  and  spiritual  teaching  of  Hebrew 
prophecy.  The  ideal  prophet  and  the  ordinary  priest 
are  as  necessarily  opposed  to  each  other  as  the  saint 
and  the  formalist.  The  glory  of  prophecy  lies  in  its 
recognition  that  right  is  always  right,  and  wrong  always 
wrong,  apart  from  all  expediency  and  all  casuistry, 
apart  from  "  all  prejudices,  private  interests,  and  partial 
affections."  "What  Jehovah  demands,"  they  taught, 
"  is  righteousness — neither  more  nor  less  ;  what  He 
hates  is  injustice.  Sin  or  offence  to  the  Deity  is  a 
thing  of  purely  moral  character.     Morality  is  that  for 


'  Hos.  vii.  3-7.  The  allusions  are  vague,  but  we  see  a  drunken 
king  among  his  drunken  princes,  surrounded  by  wicked  plotters  who 
have  flattered  his  vices.  He  is  ignorant  of  his  peril.  The  subjects 
aid  the  rulers  in  these  abominations.  All  are  blazing,  like  an  oven, 
with  passion  and  infamy,  and  only  rest  (as  the  baker  does)  to  acquire 
new  strength  for  inflaming  their  burning  desires.  At  the  dawn  their 
treachery  blazes  into  the  crime  of  murder,  and  in  the  wine-sick  fever- 
heat  of  the  banquet  the  king  is  murdered  by  his  corrupt  intimates 
(see  my  Minor  Prophets,  p.  78). 


2o8  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


the  sake  of  which  all  other  things  exist ;  it  is  the  most 
essential  element  of  all  sincere  religion.  It  is  no 
postulate,  no  idea,  but  a  necessity  and  a  fact ;  the  most 
intensely  living  of  human  powers — Jehovah,  the  God 
of  hosts.  In  wrath,  in  ruin,  this  holy  reality  makes 
its  existence  known  ;  it  annihilates  all  that  is  hollow 
and  false."  ^ 

'  Wellhausen,  Isr.  andjud.,  85. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

AZARIAH-UZZIAH   (b.c.  783(?)— 737) 
JOTHAM  (B.C.  737—735) 

2  Kings  xv.   1—7,  32 — 38 

"This  is  vanity,  and  it  is  a  sore  sickness." — Eccles.  vi.  2. 

BEFORE  we  watch  the  last  "glimmerings  and 
decays  "  of  the  Northern  Kingdom,  we  must  once 
more  revert  to  the  fortunes  of  the  House  of  David. 
Judah  partook  of  the  better  fortunes  of  Israel.  She, 
too,  enjoyed  the  respite  caused  by  the  crippling  of  the 
power  of  Syria,  and  the  cessation  from  aggression  of 
the  Assyrian  kings,  who,  for  a  century,  were  either 
unambitious  monarchs  like  Assurdan,  or  were  engaged 
in  fighting  on  their  own  northern  and  eastern  frontiers. 
Judah,  too,  like  Israel,  was  happy  in  the  long  and  wise 
governance  of  a  faithful  king. 

This  king  was  Azariah  (**  My  strength  is  Jehovah  "), 
the  son  of  Amaziah.  He  is  called  Uzziah  by  the 
Chronicler,  and  in  some  verses  of  the  brief  references 
to  his  long  reign  in  the  Book  of  Kings.  It  is  not 
certain  that  he  was  the  eldest  son  of  Amaziah ;  ^  but  he 
was  so  distinctly  the  ablest,  that,  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
he  was  chosen  king  by  "all  the  people."     His  official 


'  Hence,  perhaps,  the  expression  that  the  people  "took  him."     If 
Amaziah  died  at  fifty-nine,  he  probably  had  ether  sons. 

209  14 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


title  to  the  world  must  have  been  Azariah,  for  in  that 
form  his  name  occurs  in  the  Assyrian  records.  Uzziah 
seems  to  have  been  the  more  familiar  title  which  he 
bore  among  his  people/  There  seems  to  be  an  allusion 
to  both  names — Jehovah-his-helper,  and  Jehovah-his- 
strength — in  the  Chronicles  :  "  God  helped  him,  and 
made  him  to  prosper ;  and  his  name  spread  far  abroad, 
and  he  was  marvellously  helped,  till  he  was  strong." 

The  Book  of  Kings  only  devotes  a  few  verses  to 
him ;  but  from  the  Chronicler  we  learn  much  more 
about  his  prosperous  activity.  His  first  achievement 
was  to  recover  and  fortify  the  port  of  Elath,  on  the  Red 
Sea/  and  to  reduce  the  Edomites  to  the  position  they 
had  held  in  the  earlier  days  of  his  father's  reign.  This 
gave  security  to  his  commerce,  and  at  once  "  his  name 
spread  far  abroad,  even  to  the  entering  in  of  Egypt." 

He  next  subdued  the  Philistines ;  took  Gath,  Jabneh, 
and  Ashdod ;  dismantled  their  fortifications,  filled  them 
with  Hebrew  colonists,  and  "  smote  all  Palestine  with 
a  rod."  ^ 

He  then  chastised  the  roving  Arabs  of  the  Negeb  or 
south  country  in  Gur-Baal  and  Maon,  and  suppressed 
their  plundering  incursions. 

His  next  achievement  was  to  reduce  the  Ammonite 

'  Compare  the  interchange  of  the  names  Azariel  and  Uzziel  (Exod. 
vi.  l8)  in  I  Chron.  vi.  2,  l8.  Azariah  means  "Jehovah  hath  helped," 
and  Uzziah  "  Strength  of  Jehovah."  It  is  just  possible  that  his  name 
was  changed  at  his  accession,  as  the  chief  priest  also  was  named 
Azariah,  and  confusion  might  otherwise  have  arisen. 

^  2  Chron.  xxvi.  2-15. 

^  Isa.  xiv.  29.  A  mixed  language  arose  in  this  district  in  conse- 
quence (Neh.  xiii.  24;  Zech.  ix.  6).  The  word  Palestine  only  applies 
strictly  to  the  district  of  Philistia.  Milton  uses  it,  with  his  usual 
accuracy,  in  the  description  of  Dagon  as 

That  twice-battered  god  of  Palestine." 


XV.  1-7.]  AZARIAH-UZZIAH  211 

Emirs  to    the  position    of  tributaries,  and    to    enforce 
from  them  rights  of  pasturage  for  his  large  flocks,  not 
only  in  the  low  country  (shephelah),  but  in  the  southern 
wilderness    {vnidbar),    and    in    the    carmels    or    fertile  j 
grounds  among  the  Trans-Jordanic  hills. 

Having  thus  subdued  his  .enemies  on  all  sides,  he 
turned  his  attention  to  home  affairs — built  towers, 
strengthened  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  at  its  most  assail- 
able points,  provided  catapults  and  other  instruments 
of  war,  and  rendered  a  permanent  benefit  to  Jerusalem 
by  irrigation  and  the  storing  of  rain-water  in  tanks. 

All  these  improvements  so  greatly  increased  his 
wealth  and  importance  that  he  was  able  to  renew 
David's  old  force  of  heroes  (Gibborim),  and  to  increase 
their  number  from  six  hundred  to  two  thousand  six 
hundred,  whom  he  carefully  enrolled,  equipped  with 
armour,  and  trained  in  the  use  of  engines  of  war. 
And  he  not  only  extended  his  boundaries  southwards 
and  eastwards,  but  appears  to  have  been  strong  enough, 
after  the  death  of  Jeroboam  II.,  to  make  an  expedition 
northwards,  and  to  have  headed  a  Syrian  coalition 
against  Tiglath-Pileser  III.,  in  b.c.  738.  He  is  men- 
tioned in  two  notable  fragments  of  the  annals  of  the 
eighth  year  of  this  Ass3n*ian  king.  He  is  there  called 
Azrijahu,  and  both  his  forces  and  those  of  Hamath 
seem  to  have  suffered  a  defeat.^ 

It  is  distressing  to  find  that  a  king  so  good  and  so 
great  ended  his  days  in  overwhelming  and  irretrievable 


'  Uzziah's  opposition  to  Assyria — of  which  there  seems  to  be  no 
doubt,  for  he  must  be  the  Azrijahu  of  the  Eponyni  Cotton — took  place 
about  738,  and  was  a  coalition  movement.  But  it  gives  rise  to  great 
chronological  and  other  difficulties.  As  the  solution  of  these  is  at 
present  only  conjectural,  I  refer  to  Schrader  (E.  Tr.),  ii.  21 1-219.  He 
is  called  Azrijahu  Jahudai, 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


misfortune.  The  glorious  reign  had  a  ghastly  conclu- 
sion. All  that  the  historian  tells  us  is  that  "  the  Lord 
smote  the  king,  so  that  he  was  a  leper,  and  dwelt  in  a 
several  {i.e.,  a  separate]  house."  The  word  rendered 
"  a  several  house  "  may  perhaps  mean  (as  in  the  margin 
of  the  A.V.)  "  a  lazar  house,"  like  the  Beit  el  Massaktn 
or  "  house  of  the  unfortunate,"  the  hospital  or  abode 
of  lepers,  outside  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.^  The  render- 
ing is  uncertain,  but  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that 
the  prevalence  of  the  affliction  had,  even  in  those  early 
days,  created  a  retreat  for  those  thus  smitten,  especially 
as  they  formed  a  numerous  class.  Obviously  the  king 
could  no  more  fulfil  his  royal  duties.  A  leper  becomes 
a  horrible  object,  and  no  one  would  have  been  more 
anxious  than  the  unhappy  Azariah  himself  to  conceal 
his  aspect  from  the  eyes  of  his  people.^  His  son 
Jotham  was  set  over  the  household  ;  and  though  he  is  not 
called  a  regent  or  joint-king — for  this  institution  does 
not  seem  to  have  existed  among  the  ancient  Hebrews 
— he  acted  as  judge  over  the  people  of  the  land. 

We  are  told  that  Isaiah  wrote  the  annals  of  this 
king's  reign,  but  we  do  not  know  whether  it  was  from 
Isaiah's  biography  that  the  Chronicler  took  the  story 
of  the  manner  in  which  Uzziah  was  smitten  with 
i  leprosy.  The  Chronicler  says  that  his  heart  was  puffed 
up  with  his  successes  and  his  prosperity,  and  that  he 
was  consequently  led  to  thrust  himself  into  the  priest's 


'  2  Kings  XV.  5  (2  Chron.  xxvi.  21,  "a  house  of  sickness  ").  LXX., 
iv  oiK(p  d^<pov<rtl3d ;  Vulg.,  in  donio  libera  seorsim,  Comp.  Lev.  xiii. 
46.  Theodoret  understands  it  that  he  was  shut  up  privately  in 
his  own  palace  :  ^vdov  iv  OaXdfKi)  vw  ovSivos  opdifievos.  Symmachus, 
iyKeKXeicfiivos. 

2  His  misfortune  must  have  made  a  deep  impression,  and  is  possibly 
alluded'to  in  Hos.  iv.  4 :  "  For  thy  people  are  as  they  that  strive  with 
the"  priest." 


XV.  1-7.]  AZARIAH-UZZIAH  213 

office  by  burning  incense  in  the  Temple.^  Solomon 
appears  to  have  done  the  same  without  the  least  question 
of  opposition ;  but  now  the  times  were  changed,  and 
Azariah,  the  high  priest,^  and  eighty  of  his  colleagues 
went  in  a  body  to  prevent  Uzziah,  to  rebuke  him,  and 
to  order  him  out  of  the  Holy  Place.^  The  opposition 
kindled  him  into  the  fiercest  anger,  and  at  this  moment 
of  hot  altercation  the  red  spot  of  leprosy  suddenly  rose 
and  burned  upon  his  forehead.  The  priests  looked 
with  horror  on  the  fatal  sign  ;  and  the  stricken  king, 
himself  horrified  at  this  awful  visitation  of  God,  ceased 
to  resist  the  priests,  and  rushed  forth  to  relieve  the 
Temple  of  his  unclean  presence,  and  to  linger  out  the 
sad  remnant  of  his  days  in  the  living  death  of  that 
most  dishonouring  disease.  Surely  no  man  was  ever 
smitten  down  from  the  summits  of  splendour  to  a  lower 
abyss  of  unspeakable  calamity  !  We  can  but  trust  that 
the  misery  only  laid  waste  the  few  last  years  of  his 
reign  ;  for  Jotham  was  twenty-five  when  he  began  to 
reign,  and  he  must  have  been  more  than  a  mere  boy 
when  he  was  set  to  perform  his  father's  duties. 

So  the  glory  of  Uzziah  faded  into  dust  and  darkness. 
At  the  age  of  sixty-eight  death  came  as  the  welcome 
release  from  his  miseries,  and  "  they  buried  him  with 
his   fathers  in  the  City  of  David."      The  Levitically 

'  The  Cnronicler  attributes  the  good  part  of  his  reign  to  the  influ- 
ence of  an  unknown  Zechariah,  "  who  had  understanding  in  the 
visions  of  God";  and  says  that  when  Zechariah  died  Uzziah  altered 
for  the  worse. 

-  This  high  priest,  Azariah,  is  only  mentioned  elsewhere  in 
2  Chron.  xxvi.  17,  20. 

^  Josephus  says  that  he  had  put  on  a  priestly  robe,  and  that  a  great 
feast  was  going  on,  and  that  the  earthquake  (Amos  i.  i ;  Zech,  xiv.  5) 
happened  at  the  moment,  which  broke  the  Temple  roof,  so  that  a 
sunbeam  smote  his  head  and  produced  the  leprosy.  We  here  see 
the  growth  of  the  Haggadah. 


214  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


scrupulous  Chronicler  adds  that  he  was  not  laid  in  the 
actual  sepulchre  of  his  fathers,  but  in  a  field  of  burial 
which  belonged  to  them — "  for  they  said,  He  is  a  lepee." 
The  general  outline  of  his  reign  resembled  that  of  his 
father's.  It  began  well ;  it  fell  by  pride  ;  it  closed  in 
misery. 

The  annals  of  his  son  Jotham  were  not  eventful,  and 
he  died  at  the  age  of  forty-one  or  earlier.  He  is  said 
to  have  reigned  sixteen  years,  but  there  are  insuperable 
difficulties  about  the  chronology  of  his  reign,  which  can 
only  be  solved  by  hazardous  conjectures.^  He  was  a 
good  king,  **  howbeit  the  high  places  were  not  re- 
moved." The  Chronicler  speaks  of  him  chiefly  as  a 
builder.  He  built  or  restored  the  northern  gate  of 
the  Temple,  and  defended  Judah  with  fortresses  and 
towns.  But  the  glory  and  strength  of  his  father's  reign 
faded  away  under  his  rule.  He  did  indeed  suppress 
a  revolt  of  the  Ammonites,  and  exacted  from  them  a 
heavy  indemnity  ;  but  shortly  afterwards  the  inaction 
of  Assyria  led  to  an  alliance  between  Pekah,  King  of 
Israel,  and  Rezin,  King  of  Damascus  ;  and  these  kings 
harassed  Jotham — perhaps  because  he  refused  to  become 
a  member  of  their  coalition.  '  The  good  king  must  also 
have  been  pained  by  the  signs  of  moral  degeneracy  all 
around  him  in  the  customs  of  his  own  people.  It  was 
"  in  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died  "  that  Isaiah  saw 
his  first  vision,  and  he  gives  us  a  deplorable  picture  of 
contemporary  laxity.  Whatever  the  king  may  have 
been,  the  princes  were  no  better  than  "  rulers  of  Sodom," 
and  the  people  were  "  people  of  Gomorrha."  There 
was  abundance  of  lip-worship,  but  little  sincerity ;  plenti- 
ful religionism,  but  no  godliness.     Superstition  went 


'  For  instance,  two  verses  earlier  (2  Kings  xv.  30)  we  read  of  the 
twentieth  year  of  Jotham. 


XV.  32-38.]  JOTHAM  215 

hand  in  hand  with  formalism,  and  the  scrupulosity  of 
outward  service  was  made  a  substitute  for  righteousness 
and  true  holiness.  This  was  the  deadliest  characteristic 
of  this  epoch,  as  we  find  it  portrayed  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Isaiah.  The  faithful  city  had  become  a 
harlot — but  not  in  outward  semblance.  She  "  reflected 
heaven  on  her  surface,  and  hid  Gomorrha  in  her  heart." 
Righteousness  had  dwelt  in  her — but  now  murderers  ; 
but  the  murderers  wore  phylacteries,  and  for  a  pretence 
made  long  prayers.  It  was  this  deep-seated  hypocrisy, 
this  pretence  of  religion  without  the  reality,  which 
called  forth  the  loudest  crashes  of  Isaiah's  thunder. 
There  is  more  hope  for  a  country  avowedly  guilty  and 
irreligious  than  for  one  which  makes  its  scrupulous 
ceremonialism  a  cloak  of  maliciousness.  And  thus  there 
lay  at  the  heart  of  Isaiah's  message  that  protest  for 
bare  morality,  as  constituting  the  end  and  the  essence 
of  religion,  which  we  find  in  all  the  earliest  and  greatest 
prophets  : — 

"  Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  ye  rulers  of  Sodom  ; 
Give  ear  unto  the  Law  of  our  God,  ye  people  of  Gomorrha ! 
To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?  saith 

the  Lord. 
I  am  full  of  the  burnt-offerings  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed  beasts ; 
And    I  delight   not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks,  or   of  lambs,  or   of 

he-goats. 
When  ye  come  to  see  My  face,  who  hath  required  this  at  your 

hands,  to  trample  My  courts  ? 
Bring  no  more  vain  oblations  ! 
Incense  is  an  abomination  unto  Me : 
New  moon  and  sabbath,  the  calling  of  assemblies — 
I  cannot  away  with  iniquity  and  the  solemn  meeting.  .  .   . 
Wash  you !  make  you  clean  !  "  ' 

Of  Jotham  we  hear  nothing  more.     He  died  a  natural 
'  Isa.  i.  10-17. 


2i6  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


death  at  an  early  age.  If  the  years  of  his  reign  are 
counted  from  the  time  when  his  father's  affliction 
devolved  on  him  the  responsibilities  of  office,  it  is 
probable  that  he  did  not  long  survive  the  illustrious 
leper,  but  was  buried  soon  after  him  in  the  City  of 
David  his  father. 


CHAPTER   XX 

THE  AGONY  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM 


B.C. 

B.C. 

Sliallum     ... 

...     740                        Pekahiah 

-     737-735 

Menahem  ... 

...     740—737              Pckah  ... 
2  Kings  xv.  8—31 

-     735-734 

"Blood  toucheth  blood." — Hos.  iv.  2. 

"  The  revolters  are  profuse  in  murders." — Hos.  v.  2. 

"They  have  set  up  kings,  but  not  by  Me  :  they  have  made  princes, 
and  I  knew  it  not." — Hos.  viii.  4. 

"  Non  tarn  reges  fuere  quam  fures,  latrones,  et  tyranni." — Witsius, 
Dccaph.,  326. 

WITH  the  death  of  Zachariah  begins  the  acute 
agony  of  Israel's  dissolution.  Four  kings  were 
murdered  in  forty  years.  Indeed,  within  two  centuries, 
at  least  nine  kings — Nadab,  Elah,  Zimri,  Tibni,  Jehoram, 
Zachariah,  Shallum,  Pekahiah,  Pekah — had  made  the 
steps  of  the  throne  slippery  with  blood.  Except  in  the 
house  of  Omri,  all  the  kings  of  Israel  either  left  no 
sons  or  left  them  to  be  slain.  Amos,  by  his  vision 
of  the  basket  of  summer  fruit,  had  intimated  that  the 
sins  of  Israel  were  ripe  for  punishment,  and  the  lesson 
had  been  emphasised  by  the  paronomasia  of  quits, 
"summer,"  and  queets,  "end."^  The  prophet  had 
singled  four  out  of  many  crimes  as  the  cause  of  her 
ruin.     They  were  (i)  greedy  oppression  of  the  poor; 

'  Amos  viii.  2. 
217 


2i8  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

(2)  land-grabbing ;  (3)  licentious  and  idolatrous  revel- 
ries ;  (4)  cruelty  to  poor  debtors,  and  rioting  on  the 
proceeds  of  unjust  gains.  In  their  drunkenness  they 
even  tempted  God's  Nazarites  to  break  their  vows. 
"Behold,"  saith  Jehovah,  "I  am  pressed  under  you,  as 
a  cart  is  pressed  that  is  full  of  sheaves."  Even  women 
shared  in  the  common  intoxication,  and  showed  them- 
selves utterly  shameless,  so  that  Amos  contemptuously 
calls  them  "  fat  cows  of  Bashan  upon  the  mountain  of 
Samaria,"  whom  in  punishment  the  brutal  conqueror 
should  drag  by  the  hair  out  of  their  ivory  palaces,  as  a 
fisherman  drags  his  prey  out  of  the  water  by  hooks.^ 

Shallum,  son  of  Jabesh,  the  unknown  murderer  of 
Zachariah  and  the  usurper  of  his  throne,  suffered  the 
fate  of  Zimri,  and  only  reigned  for  one  month.  If  his 
conspiracy  was  marked  by  the  odious  circumstances 
of  treachery  and  corruption,  which  we  infer  from  the 
allusions  of  Hosea,  Shallum  richly  deserved  the  swift 
retribution  which  fell  upon  him.  He  seems  to  have 
destroyed  Zachariah  by  means  of  his  best  affections — 
under  the  guise  of  friendship,  in  the  midst  of  boon 
companionship.  But  the  slayer  of  his  master  had  no 
peace,  and  from  the  moment  of  his  fruitless  crime  the 
unhappy  country  seems  to  have  been  plunged  in  the 
horrors  of  civil  war.  Some  dim  glimpses  of  the  evils 
of  the  day  are  gained  from  the  earlier  Zechariah,^  just 
as  some  dim  glimpses  of  the  horrors  of  Rome  in  the 
days  of  the  later  Caesars  may  be  seen  in  the  Apocalypse. 
The  prophet  speaks  of  three  shepherds  cut  off  in  one 


'  Amos  iv.  1-3. 

^  It  is  probable  that  our  present  Book  of  Zachariah  is  composed  of 
the  works  of  three  prophets  of  different  dates,  each  of  whom  may 
have  borne  that  name.  See  my  Minor  Prophets  ("  Men  of  the  Bible  ' 
Series). 


XV.  8-31.]     AGONY  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM         219 

month,  who  abhorred  God,  and  His  soul  was  impatient 
at  them/ 

Just  as  Galba,  Otho,  and  VitelHus  flit  across  the 
stage  of  the  Empire  amid  war  and  assassinations,  so 
Zachariah  and  Shallum  are  swept  away  by  "  dagger- 
thrusts  through  the  purple."  Was  there  a  third  ? 
Ewald  and  others  think  that  they  detect  a  shadowy 
.  outline  of  him  and  of  his  name  in  2  Kings  xv.  10.  If 
so,  his  name  was  Kobolam,  but  we  know  no  more  of 
him  beyond  the  fact  that  **  he  was,  and  is  not."  For 
the  sacred  annals  are  but  little  concerned  with  this 
bloody  phantasmagoria  of  feeble  kings,  who  ruled  amid 
usurpation,  anarchy,  hostile  attacks  from  without,  and 
civil  war  within.  "Israel,"  said  Hosea,  "hath  cast  off 
the  thing  that  is  good  :  the  enemy  shall  pursue  him. 
They  have  set  up  kings,  but  not  by  Me  :  they  have 
made  princes,  and  I  knew  it  not."  "They  are  all  as 
hot  as  an  oven,  and  have  devoured  their  judges  ;  all 
their  kings  have  fallen ;  there  is  none  among  them  that 
calleth  upon  Me."  ^ 

It  was  perhaps  during  this  distracted  epoch  that  for 
one  moment  there  was  an  attempt  to  place  the  ruling 
authority  of  the  nation  in  the  hands  of  the  prophet 
himself  So  it  would  appear  from  Zech.  xi.  7-14.  Of 
course  these  chapters  may  be  allegorical  throughout,  as, 
in  any  case,  they  are  in  great  part.  But  if  so,  it  becomes 
more  difficult  to  understand  the  meaning.  What  the 
prophet  says  is  as  follows : — 

'  Zech.  xi.  8.  In  2  Kings  xv.  10  the  LXX.  read  /cat  enara^ev  aiirbv 
iv  Ke^Xad/jL;  and  Ewald  thinks  that  "before  the  people"  (DUvQj?) 
is  really  a  proper  name  of  the  third  king  in  one  month — "  and 
Kobolam  slew  him."  There  is  insufficient  ground  for  this,  though  a 
similar  name  is  found  in  Assyrian  records. 

^  Hos.  viii.  3,  vii.  7. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


First,  as  though  he  saw  the  terrible  conflagration  of 
the  Assyrian  tyranny  rolHng  southwards,  and  felt  it 
to  be  irresistible,  he  bids  Lebanon  open  her  doors,  that 
the  fire  may  devour  her  cedars.  There  is  perhaps  an 
allusion  to  the  death  of  Jeroboam  II.  in  the  words, 
"  Howl  fir  tree,  for  the  cedar  is  fallen."  He  sees 
in  vision  the  forces  of  devastation  raging  among  the 
oaks  of  Bashan,  the  forest  and  the  vintage,  while  the 
shepherds  cry,  and  the  ousted  lions  roar  in  vain.  Then 
Jehovah  bids  him  feed  "  the  flock  of  the  slaughter  " — the 
flock  sold  remorselessly  by  its  rich  possessors,  and 
slain,  and  left  unpitied,  as  the  people  were  despoiled 
by  its  nobles  and  its  kings.  The  prophet  undertakes 
the  charge  of  the  miserable  flock,  and  takes  two  staves, 
one  of  which  he  calls  "  Prosperity,"  and  the  other 
"  Union."  While  he  was  thus  engaged  three  shepherds 
were  cut  ofl"  in  one  month,^  whom  he  loathed,  and  who 
abhorred  him.  But  he  finds  his  task  hopeless,  and 
flings  it  up ;  and  in  sign  that  his  covenant  with  the 
people  is  broken,  he  breaks  his  staff  "  Prosperity." 
The  nation  refused  to  pay  him  anything  for  his  services, 
except  a  paltry  sum  of  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  and  these 
he  disdainfully  flung  into  the  sacred  treasury.'-^  Then 
seeing  that  all  hope  of  union  between  Israel  and  Judah 
was  at  an  end,  he  broke  his  staff  "  Union."  Lastly, 
Jehovah  says  He  will  raise  up  a  foolish,  neglectful, 
cruel  shepherd  who  would  care  for  nothing  but  to  eat 
the  flesh  of  the  fat  and  break  the  hoofs  of  the  flock. 
And  as  for  this  worthless  shepherd,  the  sword  should 
be  upon  his  arm  and  in  his  right  eye ;  his  arm  shall  be 
dried  up,  and  his  right  eye  utterly  darkened. 

By  this  cruel  and  self-seeking  shepherd  is  probably 

'  Zachariah,  Shallum,  Kobolam  (?). 
-  Zech.  xi.  1-17  (Heb.  13). 


XV.  8-3 1.]     AGONY  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM         221 


meant  Menahem.  He  had  been,  according  to  Josephus, 
the  captain  of  the  guard,  and  was  hving  at  Tirzah,  the 
old  beautiful  capital  of  the  land.  From  Tirzah,  where 
he  occupied  the  position  of  the  captain  of  the  chariots, 
he  marched  on  the  ill-supported  Shallum.  Samaria 
apparently  offered  no  protection  to  the  usurper. 
Menahem  defeated  him  and  put  him  to  death.  Then 
he  proceeded  to  enforce  the  allegiance  of  the  rest  of  the 
country.  An  otherwise  unknown  town  of  the  name 
of  Tiphsach^  ventured  to  resist  him.  Menahem  con- 
quered it,  and  perhaps  thinking,  as  Machiavelli  thought, 
that  princes  had  better  exhibit  their  utmost  cruelty 
at  first,  to  deter  any  further  opposition,  he  let  loose  his 
ferocity  on  the  town  in  a  way  which  created  a  shudder- 
ing remembrance.  As  though  he  had  been  one  of  the 
ferocious  heathen,  who  had  never  been  restrained  by 
the  knowledge  of  God,  he  exhibited  the  extreme  of 
callous  brutality  by  ripping  up  all  the  women  that  were 
with  child. ^  In  this  he  followed  the  remorseless 
example  of  Hazael.  Hosea  had  prophesied  that  this 
should  be  the  fate  of  Samaria  ;  ^  Amos  had  denounced 
the  Ammonities  for  acting  thus  in  the  cities  of  Gilead ;  * 


'  That  this  was  Thapsacus  on  the  Euphrates  (i  Kings  iv.  24),  and 
that  Menahem  was  in  a  position  to  march  northward  three  hundred 
miles,  and  offer  so  deadly  and  wanton  an  insult  to  the  might  of 
Assyria,  is  out  of  the  question.  The  name  means  "  a  ford,"  and 
might  apply  to  any  town  on  a  river.  Thenius  thinks  the  name  is  a 
clerical  error  for  Tappuach,  between  Ephraim  and  Manasseh  (Josh, 
xvii.  7,  8). 

*  Josephus  says,  d}fj,6TT)Tos  vireppoXyjv  ov  KaTa\nru}v  ov8^  dypLorrjros, 
It  is  said  that  the  same  crime  was  committed  in  1 861  by  a  Mexican 
bandit.  Machiavelli  says,  "  He  who  violently  and  without  just  right 
usurps  a  crown  must  use  cruelty,  if  cruelty  becomes  necessary,  once 
for  all"  (De  princ,  8). 

^  2  Kings  viii.  12;  Hos.  xiii.  16. 

*  Amos  i.  13. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Shalmaneser  III.  had,  in  b.c.  732,  thus  avenged  himself 
on  the  resistance  of  Beth-Arbel/  and  Assyria  was  ulti- 
mately to  meet  an  analogous  retribution,^  as  also  was 
Babylon.^  But  that  a  king  of  Ephraim,  of  God's  chosen 
people,  should  act  thus  to  his  own  brethren  was  a 
horrible  portent,  ominous  of  swift  destruction. 

And  the  vengeance  came.  Menahem  reigned,  at 
least  in  name,  for  ten  years ;  for  the  sword  which  had 
slain  mothers  with  their  unborn  infants  reduced  the 
stricken  people  to  terrified  silence.  But  at  this  epoch 
Assyria  woke  once  more  from  her  lethargy,  and  became 
the  scourge  of  God  to  the  guilty  people  and  their 
guiltier  kings.  For  a  whole  century  the  Assyrians 
had  either  been  governed  by  kings  w4io  had  abjured 
the  lust  of  blood  and  conquest,  or  had  been  too  seriously 
occupied  on  their  own  eastern  and  northern  frontiers 
to  intermeddle  with  the  southern  kingdoms,  or  break 
down  the  barriers  erected  by  the  confederacy  of  Hamath 
and  Damascus  between  Nineveh  and  the  weaker 
principalities  of  Palestine.  But  now  (b.c.  745)  there 
came  to  the  throne  a  king  who,  in  Chaldsea,  was  known 
by  the  name  of  Pul,  and  in  Assyria  by  the  name  of 
Tiglath-Pileser ;  *  and  being  too  formidable  for  any 
power  to  stay  his  path,  he  marched  against  Menahem. 
Already  he  was  lord  of  the  world  from  the  Caspian  to 

'  Hos.  X.  14.  This  allusion  is,  however,  uncertain.  Shalmaneser  III. 
is  not  elsewhere  found  abbreviated  into  Shalman.  Some  suppose 
him  to  be  a  Moabitish  king,  Salamannu,  who  was  a  vassal  of  Tiglath- 
Pileser.  The  LXX.,  Vulg.,  etc.,  identify  him  with  the  Zalmunna  ot 
Judg.  viii.  18.  Psalm  Ixxxiii.  Ii  renders  the  word  ex  domo  ejus  qui 
judicavit  Baal  (i.e.,  Gideon).  Beth-Arbel  is  either  Arbela  in  Galilee, 
or  Irbid,  north-east  of  Pella. 

■^  Nah.  iii.  lo. 

*  Isa.  xiii.  i6. 

*  The  two  predecessors  of  Tiglath-Pileser  (Tuklat-abal-tsarra)  were 
Assurdayan  and  Assurnirari. 


XV.  8-31.]     AGONY  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM         223 

the  Gulf  of  Persia  ;  already  he  had  subdued  Babylonia, 
Elam,  Media,  Armenia,  eastward— Mesopotamia  and 
Syria  westward.  Who  was  Menahem,  the  petty 
usurper  of  a  tenth-rate  kingdom,  that  he  should  with- 
stand his  power  or  even  retard  his  advance  ? 

The  cruel  usurper  was  in  no  condition  to  resist  him. 
The  brand  of  Cain  was  on  him  and  his  kingdom. 
How  could  the  weak,  impoverished,  harassed  troops 
of  Israel  stand  up  in  battle  against  those  numberless 
serried  ranks,  or  withstand  their  tremendous  discipline  ? 
If  the  very  name  of  Persia  had  once  stricken  terror  into 
the  brave  Greeks  before  the  spell  of  Persian  ascend- 
ency was  broken  at  Marathon,  Thermopylae,  and 
Salamis,  much  more  did  the  name  of  Assyria  make 
the  hearts  of  the  wretched  Israelites  melt  like  water. 
They  now  for  the  first  time  saw  those  bearded  warriors 
with  their  broad  swords,  their  tremendous  bows,  their 
fierce,  sensual  faces,  their  thickset  figures.  In  the 
language  of  the  prophets  we  still  hear  the  echo  of  the 
fears  which  they  excited  by  their  swift,  unfaltering 
marches,  their  sleepless  vigilance,  their  girded  loins, 
stout  sandals,  and  barbed  arrows.^ 

"Their  horses'  hoofs,"  says  Isaiah,  "shall  be  like 
flint,  and  their  wheels  like  a  whirlwind  :  their  roaring 
shall  be  like  a  lion,  they  shall  roar  like  young  lions ; 
yea,  they  shall  roar,  and  lay  hold  of  the  prey,  and 
carry  it  away  safe,  and  there  shall  be  none  to  deliver. 
And  they  shall  roar  against  them  in  that  day  like  the 
roaring  of  the  sea  ;  and  if  one  look  unto  the  land, 
behold  darkness  and  distress,  and  the  light  is  darkened 
in  the  clouds  thereof" 

Ancient  Assyria  lay  beneath  the  Snowy  Mountains 
of  Kurdistan ;  and  its  capital,  Nineveh — near  Mosul, 

'  Isa.  V.  26-29. 


224  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Kouyunjik,  and  Neby-Junus — lay  six  hundred  miles 
from  the  Gulf  of  Persia.  The  people  spoke,  as  their 
descendants  still  speak,  a  dialect  of  Syriac,  akin  both 
grammatically  and  structurally  to  Hebrew.  Assyria 
was  constantly  at  war  with  Babylonia ;  but  for  the 
most  part  the  kings  of  Assyria  held  Babylon  in  subjec- 
tion, and  Tiglath-Pileser  was  a  king  of  the  Chaldaeans 
under  the  name  Pul,  as  well  as  a  king  of  Nineveh. 

Menahem  was  warrior  enough  to  know  how  hopeless 
it  was  to  struggle  against  these  trained  forces.  He 
was  not  even  secure  on  his  own  throne.  He  thought  it 
best  to  offer  himself  without  resistance  as  a  feudatory, 
if  the  Assyrian  King  would  confirm  his  sovereignty. 
Tiglath-Pileser  did  not  think  Menahem  worth  more 
trouble,  and  was  graciously  pleased  to  accept  by  way 
of  bribe  a  tribute  of  a  thousand  talents  of  silver,  or 
about  ;^i 25,000.  This,  however,  as  we  learn  from 
the  Eponym  Canon,  was  not  all.  Menahem  had  to 
pay  a  further  tribute  year  by  year.  Later  on,  in  y^i^, 
Shalmaneser  mentions  Minik-himmi  (Menahem),  as  well 
as  Rasunnu  (P.ezin),  among  his  tributaries. 

The  Assyrian  withdrew,  and  Menahem  had  to  exact 
this  vast  sum  of  money  from  his  miserable  subjects. 
To  tax  the  poor  was  hopeless.  He  found  that  there 
were  some  sixty  thousand  persons  who  might  be 
reckoned  among  the  wealthier  farmers  and  proprietors,^ 
and  from  them  he  at  once  exacted  fifty  shekels  of  silver 
(more  than  ;i^3)  apiece.  Probably  they  thought  that 
to  pay  the  sum  demanded  was  not  too  heavy  a  price 
for  the  retirement  of  these  frightful  Assyrians,  whose 
forces  Tiglath-Pileser  did  not  withdraw  until  he  had 
the  money  in  hand.  The  event  took  place  in  738,  and 
Tiglath-Pileser  continued  to  reign  till  727.  How  bitterly 
'  Comp.  Job  XX.  15  ;  Ruth  ii.  r. 


XV.S-3I.]     AGONY  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM         225 


the  burden  of  foreign  tribute  was  felt  appears  from 
Hos.  viii.  9,  10,  which  should  perhaps  be  rendered, 
"  They  are  gone  up  to  Assyria  like  a  wild  ass  alone 
by  himself.  Ephraim  hath  hired  lovers.  And  they 
begin  to  be  minished  by  reason  of  the  burden  of  the 
king  of  princes."  "The  king  of  princes"  was  the 
haughty  title  usurped  by  Tiglath-Pileser,  who  said, 
"  Are  not  my  princes  all  of  them  kings  ?  "  (Isa.  x.  8). 

All  this  was  a  fulfilment  of  what  Hosea  had  fore- 
seen : — 

"  Ephraim  is  oppressed,  he  is  crushed  in  judgment, 
because  he  was  content  to  walk  after  vanity.  Therefore 
am  I  unto  Ephraim  as  a  moth,  and  to  the  house  of 
Judah  as  rottenness.  When  Ephraim  saw  his  sickness, 
and  the  house  of  Judah  his  wound,  then  went  Ephraim 
to  Assyria,  and  sent  unto  an  avenging  king :  ^  yet  could 
he  not  heal  you,  nor  cure  you  of  your  wound.  For  I 
will  be  unto  Ephraim  as  a  lion,  and  as  a  young  lion 
to  the  House  of  Judah  :  I,  even  I,  will  tear  and  go 
away ;  I  will  take  away,  and  none  shall  rescue  him." 
The  Assyrian  was  irresistible,  because  he  was  the 
destined  instrument  of  the  wrath  of  God.  The 
"mixing  with  the  heathens"  was  a  sin,  and  Israel  in 
cooing  to  Assyria  was  like  a  foolish  dove  ;  but  the  day 
sometimes  comes  to  doomed  nations  when  no  course 
can  save  them  from  the  fate  which  they  have  provoked.^ 

'  Hos.  V.  11-13.  Comp.  X.  6:  "It  [Samaria]  shall  be  carried  to  Assyria 
for  a  present  unto  King  Jareb."  Sayce  {Bab.  and  Orient.  Records, 
December  1887)  thinks  that  Jareb  may  have  been  the  original  name 
of  Sargon,  and  so  too  Neubauer,  Zeitschr.  fur  Assyr.,  1886.  The 
Vulg.  renders  King  Jareb  ad  regent  ullorem,  and  so  too  Symmachus. 
Aquila  and  Theodotion  have  SiKa^Sfievov.  It  may  be  the  name  of 
an  unknown  king  of  Assyria,  or  of  Pul,  or  of  Sargon — R.V.,  margin, 
"a  king  that  should  contend." 

*  Hos.  vii.  8-12. 

15 


226  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

"Not  long  afterwards  Menahem  died,  and  he  had 
sufficiently  established  his  rule  to  be  succeeded  as  a 
matter  of  course  by  his  son  Pekahiah.     But 

"  Revenge  and  wrong  bring  forth  their  kind ; 
The  foul  cubs  like  their  parents  are." 

Samaria  had  fearful  object-lesson's  in  the  apparently 
immediate  success  of  murder  and  rebellion.  The  prize 
looked  near  and  splendid  :  the  vengeance  might  be 
belated  or  might  not  come.  Of  Pekahiah  we  are  told 
absolutely  nothing  but  that  he  reigned  two  years,  with 
this  stereotyped  addition,  that  "  he  did  that  which  was 
evil  in  the  sight  of  Jehovah  "  by  continuing  the  calf- 
worship.^  After  this  brief  and  uneventful  reign,  Ids 
captain  Pekali  got  together  fifty  fierce  Gileadites,  and 
with  the  aid  of  two  otherwise  unknov/n  friends,  Argob 
and  Arieh,  murdered  Pekahiah  in  his  own  harem." 
Argob  was  probably  so  named  from  the  district  in 
Bashan,  and  Arieh  was  a  fit  name  for  a  lion-faced 
Gadite  (i  Chron.  xii.  8). 

The  sacred  historian  troubles  himself  but  little  about 
these  kings.  His  annals  of  them  are  brief  to  extreme 
meagreneco.  Like  the  prophet,  he  viewed  them  as 
God-abandoned  phantoms  of  guilty  royalty. 

"They  that  cry  unto  me,  My  God,  we,   Israel,  know  thee. 
Israel  hath  cast  off  that  which  is  good  : 
The  enemy  shall  pursue  him. 
They  have  set  up  kings,  but  not  by  Me  ; 
They  have  removed  them,  and  I  knew  it  not : 
Of  their  silver  and  their  gold  have  they  made  them  idols, 
That  they  may  be  cut  off. 
He  hath  cast  off  thy  calf,  O  Samaria." 

'  Josephus  says,  T-g  rod  irarpbs  &Ko\ov6'^(ras  d}fi6rii)Ti. 

-  2  Kings  XV.  25,  A.V.,  "in  the  palace  of  the  king's  house" 
{(irinon),  rather  "  fortress."  For  the  character  of  the  Gileadites  see 
I  Chron.  xii.  8,  xxvi.  31. 


XV.  8-31.]     AGONY  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM         227 

Probably  Pekahiah  was,  as  so  often  happens,  the 
weak  son  of  a  vigorous  father.  The  times  could  not 
tolerate  incapable  sovereigns  ;  and  the  fact  that  Pekah 
not  only  maintained  himself  on  the  throne  for  twenty 
years,^  but  was  able  to  take  active  steps  of  aggression 
against  Jerusalem,  seems  to  show  that  he  was  a  man 
of  some  administrative  capacity.  If  he  had  not  achieved 
political  and  military  importance,  it  would  hardly  have 
been  worth  while  for  a  fierce  and  powerful  king  like 
Rezin,  the  last  king  of  Syria,  to  form  so  close  an 
alliance  with  him.  Probably  Rezin  saw  that  his  throne 
and  his  very  existence  were  in  danger,  and  Pekah 
wished  with  Rezin's  aid  to  resist  to  the  uttermost  the 
encroachments  of  Assyria,  and  escape  the  burdensome 
tribute  which  Menahem  had  paid.  Indeed,  it  may  well 
be  that  Pekahiah's  passive  continuance  of  this  tribute 
may  have  been  distasteful  to  the  people  of  the  land, 
and  that  they  condoned  or  even  tacitly  aided  Pekah's 
rebellion  in  order  to  get  rid  of  it,  and  to  find  protection 
in  an  abler  monarch.  It  was  the  last,  perhaps  the 
only,  chance  for  the  kings  of  Syria  and  of  Israel.  As 
we  hear  no  more  of  Hamath  as  a  member  of  the 
alliance,  we  must  suppose  that  it  had  now  been 
reduced  to  impotence  and  vassalage  by  the  all-powerful 
Assyrian,     If,  however,  there   was    to    be   any   over- 

'  The  length  of  Pekah's  reign  is  most  doubtful.  If  the  periods 
assigned  to  the  reigns  in  the  Northern  and  Southern  Kingdoms  be 
added  together  up  to  the  Fall  of  Samaria  in  the  sixth  year  of 
Hezekiah  (2  Kings  xviii.  9,  lo),  it  will  be  found  that  the  Southern 
chronology  is  twenty  years  longer  than  the  Northern,  G.  Smith 
would  alter  the  text,  and  make  Jeroboam  II.  reign  fifty-one  years  and 
Pekah  thirty  years ;  others  invent  an  interregnum  of  eleven  years 
between  Jeroboam  II.  and  Zachariah,  and  an  anarchy  of  nine  years 
before  Hoshea's  accession ;  others  shorten  Pekah's  reign  to  one 
year. 


228  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


balance  to  the  colossal  menace  of  Nineveh,  it  could 
only  be  by  a  large  confederacy ;  and  it  may  have  been 
the  refusal  of  Jotham  to  join  that  confederacy,  on  the 
death  of  his  father  Uzziah,  which  caused  the  joint 
invasion  of  Rezin  and  Pekah  to  force  him  to  accept 
their  alliance  or  to  suppress  him  altogether.  In  that 
case  they  might  have  formed  a  close  alliance  with 
Egypt,  and  the  forces  of  the  united  South  might,  they 
fancied,  prove  to  be  a  match  for  the  forces  of  the 
North.^ 

Whatever  designs  they  may  have  formed  against 
Jotham,  or  to  whatever  extent  they  may  have  annoyed 
him,  it  was  not  till  the  reign  of  his  son  Ahaz  that  they 
became  formidable  and  ruinous.  Of  this  we  shall  say 
more  in  recounting  the  reign  of  Ahaz.  All  that  we' 
need  now  remark  is  that  their  bold  aggression  on 
Judah  became  the  cause  of  utter  destruction  to  them 
both.  They  advanced  against  Ahaz,  and  overran  his 
helpless  country.  It  was  their  object  to  depose  the 
descendant  of  David,  and  to  crown  in  his  place  a  certain 
unnamed  **  son  of  Tabeal,"  whom  Ewald  supposed  to 
have  been  a  Syrian,  but  whose  name  may  possibly 
furnish  a  specimen  of  the  later  Jewish  device  of 
Gem.atria.^ 

It  is  not  impossible  that  behind  these  events  we  may 
find  the  efforts  and  yearnings  of  a  party  which  cared 
more  for  Israel's  unity  than  for  David's  throne.  Such 
a  party  may  easily  have  sprung  up  during  the  splendid, 
prosperous  reign  of  Jeroboam  II.  It  has  been  con- 
jectured by  some  that  the  election  of  Uzziah  by  the 
people — delayed,  according  to  one  reckoning,  for  twelve 
years — was  in  reality  the  triumph  of  the  party  which 

',2  Kings  XV.  37.  .  ■■*  Vide  «;//ra. 


XV.  8-31.]     AGONY  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM         229 


felt  an  unquenchable  allegiance  to  David's  house.  In 
Deut.  xxxiii.  Reuben  is  put  before  Judah  ;  Jeshurun 
{i.e.,  Israel)  is  magnified  far  more  than  Judah  ;  and 
some  Northern  shrine  in  Zebulon,  as  well  as  the  Temple, 
is  celebrated  as  a  sanctuary.^  That  there  were  men  in 
Jerusalem  who  preferred  Rezin  and  Pekahiah  to  their 
own  king  is  clearly  stated  in  Isaiah.  He  compares 
them  to  those  who  prefer  a  turbid  torrent  to  a  soft, 
sweet  stream.  "  Because,"  he  says,  "  this  people 
despise  the  waters  of  Shiloah  that  flow  softly,  and 
take  delight  in  Rezin  and  Remaliah's  son  ;  now,  there- 
fore, the  Lord  bringeth  upon  them  the  waters  of  the 
river,  strong  and  many,  even  the  King  of  Assyria,  and 
all  his  glory."  ^  Isaiah  seems  to  have  had  a  contempt 
for  the  whole  attack.  He  told  Ahaz  not  to  fear  for  the 
stumps  of  those  two  smoking  firebrands  Rezin,  King 
of  Syria,  and  the  Israelitish  usurper,  whom  he  only 
condescends  to  call  "  Remaliah's  son."  He  promises 
the  trembling  Ahaz  that,  since  he  had  faithlessly 
refused  a  sign,  God  would  give  him  a  sign.  The  sign 
was  that  the  young  woman  who  accompanied  Isaiah — 
perhaps  his  youthful  wife — should  bear  a  son,  whose 
name  should  be  called  Immanuel ;  and  that  before  the 
child  Immanuel — whose  designation,  "  God  with  us," 
was  an  omen  of  the  loftiest  hope — should  be  of  an  age 
to  distinguish  evil  from  good,  the  Northern  land,  which 
Ahaz  abhorred,  should  be  forsaken  of  both  her  kings. 

The  prophecy  came  true  in  every  particular.  Rezin 
and  Pekah  swept  all  before  them,  and  besieged 
Jerusalem  ;  but  they  wasted  their  time  in  vain  before 
the  fortifications  which  Jotham  had  strengthened  and 

'  Deut.  xxxiii.   19:  "They   fZebulon]  shall  call  the  peoples  unto 
the  mountain :  there  shall  th^jji^mer^Ii^  ^jriHcSS'ft^righteousness." 
'■*  Isa.  viii.  6,  7- 


230  tHE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


repaired.  Obliged  to  raise  the  siege,  Rezin  carried  his 
army  southward,  and  indemnified  himself  by  seizing 
Elath,  by  driving  out  the  Judsean  garrison,  and  replac- 
ing them  with  Syrians/  It  was  the  last  gleam  of 
Syrian  success,  before  the  final  overthrow  of  Damascus 
which  prophecy  had  often  and  emphatically  foretold. 

Pekah  also  withdrew  his  forces — no  doubt  compelled 
to  do  so  by  the  step  which  Ahaz  took  in  his  despera- 
tion. For  now  the  King  of  Judah  invoked  the  pro- 
tection and  invited  the  active  interference  of  Tiglath- 
Pileser  against  his  enemies — "  to  save  him  out  of  the 
hand  of  the  King  of  Syria,  and  out  of  the  hand  of 
the  King  of  Israel,  who  were  risen  up  against  him." 

Rezin  and  Damascus  first  felt  the  might  of  the 
Assyrian's  conquering  arm.  The  account  of  his  de- 
cisive conquest  is  preserved  in  the  Eponynt  Canon, 
and  the  passages  which  refer  to  the  defeat  of  the 
Syrians  will  be  found  in  the  First  Appendix  at  the  end 
of  the  volume.  It  appears  from  the  monuments  that 
Rezin  (Rasannu)  lost  not  only  his  kingdom,  but  his 
Hfe. 

It  is  the  death-knell  of  Aramaean  greatness,  as 
Amos  had  foretold. 

"  Thus  saith  Jehovah  : 
For  three  transgressions  of  Damascus,  and  for  four, 
I  will  not  turn  away  the  punishment  thereof; 
Because  they  have  threshed  Gilead  with  threshing  instruments  of 

iron  : 
But  I  will  send  a  fire  into  the  house  of  Hazael, 
Which  shall  devour  the  palaces  of  Benhadad. 
And  I  will  break  the  bar  of  Damascus,^ 
And  cut  off  him  that  sitteth  [on  the  throne]  in  the  Valley  of  Aven,' 

'  Perhaps  we  should  read  Edomites  (2  Kings  xvi.  6). 

"^  The  bar  of  its  city  gate. 

*  Bikath-Aven — "The   cleft   of  Aven" — Coele   Syria,    or   Hollow 


XV.  8-31.]     AGONY  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM        231 

And  him  that  holdeth  the  sceptre  from  Beth-Eden  : ' 
And  the  people  of  Syria  shall  go  into  captivity  unto  Kir,'- 
Saith  Jehovah." 

Rezin  was  slain — how  we  know  not ;  very  probably 
by  one  of  the  horrible  methods  of  torture — by  being 
flayed  alive,  or  decapitated,  or  having  his  lips  and  nose 
cut  off — which  were  practised  by  these  demon-kings 
of  Nineveh. 

Nor  did  Pekah  escape.  Tiglath-Pileser  advanced 
against  the  northern  part  of  his  dominions,  and  afflicted 
the  land  of  Zebulon  and  Naphtali.  Ijon  ;  Abel-beth- 
Maachah,  the  city  of  Elisha ;  Zanoah,  the  ancient 
sanctuary  of  Kedesh-Naphtali,  the  home  of  the  hero 
Barak  ;  Hazor,  the  former  capital  of  the  Canaanitish 
king  Jabin ;  Gilead  ;  Galilee, — all  submitted  to  him, 
apparently  without  striking  a  serious  blow.  He  dealt 
with  the  miserable  inhabitants  in  the  way  familiar  to 
kings  of  Assyria.  He  deported  them  en  masse  into  a 
strange  country  of  which  they  did  not  understand  the 
language,  and  in  which  they  were  reduced  to  hopeless 
subjection,  while  he  supplied  their  places  by  aliens 
from  various  parts  of  his  own  dominions.  There  could 
be  no  securer  method  of  reducing  to  paralysis  all  their 
national  aspirations.  Strangers  in  a  strange  land, 
they  forgot  their  nationality,  forgot  their  religion,  for- 
got their  language,  forgot  their  traditions.  Their  sole 
resource  was  to  plunge  into  material  pursuits,  and  to 
melt   away  into   indistinguishable   obliteration   among 

Syria,  still  called  by  the  Arabs  El-Bukaa.  Comp.  Josh.  xi.  17,  xii.  7. 
Aven — or  "  Vanity  " — is  perhaps  Heliopolis  or  Baalbek.  Comp.  Ezek. 
XXX.  17. 

•  Perhaps  Beit  el  Jame,  "  House  of  Paradise  " — about  eight  hours 
from  Damascus  (Porter,  Five  Years  in  Syria,  i.  313). 

■^  Kir,  in  Armenia — the  land  of  their  origin  (Amos  ix.  7). 


232  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


the   neighbouring  heathen.     It    was  the  beginning  of 
the  Northern  Captivity — of  the  loss  of  the  Ten  Tribes. 

As  Tiglath-Pileser  thus  permanently  subdued  and 
depopulated  the  land  of  the  Northern  Tribes,  it  is  a 
Jewish  tradition  that  at  this  time  he  carried  away  the 
golden  "calf"  from  Dan  among  his  spoils.^  Scripture 
does  not  record  the  fact,  though  in  Hosea  (viii.  5)  there 
may  be  an  allusion  to  the  fate  of  that  at  Bethel,  whether 
the  right  version  be  "  He  hath  cast  off  thy  calf,  O 
Samaria,"  or  "  Thy  calf,  O  Samaria,  hath  cast  thee 
off."  ^  "  The  workman  made  it,"  he  continues  ;  "  there- 
fore it  is  not  God  :  for  the  calf  of  Samaria  shall  be 
broken  in  pieces."  And  again  (x.  5)  :  "  The  people  of 
Samaria  shall  fear  because  of  the  heifer  of  the  House  of 
Vanity :  for  the  people  thereof  shall  mourn  over  it,  and 
the  cheman'm  [i.e.,  the  black-robed  false  priests  thereof] 
shall  tremble  for  it,  for  the  glory  thereof,  because  it  is 
departed.  It  [the  idol]  shall  also  be  carried  to  Assyria 
for  a  present  to  King  Combat." 

For  a  time  Pekah  escaped ;  but  unsuccess  is  fatal  to 
a  murderous  usurper,  weakened  by  the  loss  and  plunder 
of  dominions  which  he  is  unable  to  defend.  Instead  of 
wasting  time  in  the  siege  of  a  strong  city  like  Samaria, 
Tiglath-Pileser  in  all  probability  stirred  up  Hoshea,  the 

'  But,  after  all,  was  there  a  golden  calf  at  Dan  ?  It  is  scarcely  ever 
alluded  to,  and  the  notion  that  there  was  one  may  have  arisen  (i)  from 
a  corruption  or  mistaken  rendering  of  the  text  in  i  Kings  xii.  29,  and 
(2)  from  the  existence  there  of  the  idolatrous  ephod.  See  Kloster- 
mann,  ad  loc. ;  Isa.  ix.  8-17. 

^  LXX.,  'AwoTpiif/ai  tou  /jidcrxof  aov,  "Lajx&peia ;  Vulg.,  Projcdus  est 
vituhts  tuus,  Samaria.  Orelli  renders  it,  "  Abscheulich  ist  dein  Kalb, 
O  Samaria."  In  Jer.  xlvi.  15  we  read  (of  Egypt),  "Why  is  thy  strong 
one  swept  away  ?  "  where  the  true  reading  may  be,  "  Hath  Khaph  [i.e.. 
Apis],  thy  chosen  one,  fled  ?  "  LXX.i'ATrts  6  ix6<rxos  <rov,  6  €K\eKT6s.  So 
Amos  had  prophesied  that  the  "god  of  Dan"  and  the  "way  of 
Beersheba  "  should  fall  for  evermore  (Amos  viii.  14). 


XV.  8-^31-]     AGONY  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM         233 

son  of  Elah,  to  rise  in  conspiracy  against  his  master  and 
slay  him.  For  Pekah  and  Israel  seem  to  have  made 
light  of  the  Northern  raid.  They  said  in  their  pride 
and  stoutness  of  heart,  "  The  bricks  are  fallen  down, 
but  we  will  build  with  new  stones  :  the  sycomores  are 
cut  down,  but  we  will  change  them  into  cedars."  Such 
pretence  of  security  was  ill-timed  and  senseless,  and 
Isaiah  denounced  it.  "  Therefore,"  he  said,  "  Jehovah 
hath  set  up  against  Lsrael  the  adversaries  of  Rezin  \_i.e., 
the  Assyrians],  and  hath  stirred  up  his  enemies  ;  the 
Syrians  on  the  east,  and  the  Philistines  on  the  west ; 
and  they  have  devoured  Israel  with  open  mouth.  For 
all  this  His  anger  is  not  turned  away,  but  His  hand  is 
stretched  out  still.  Yet  the  people  have  not  turned 
unto  Him  that  smote  them,  neither  have  they  sought 
the  Lord  of  hosts.  Therefore  Jehovah  hath  cut  off 
from  Israel  palm-branch  and  rush  in  one  day.  The 
elder  and  the  honourable  man,  he  is  the  head  ;  and  the 
prophet  that  speaketh  lies,  he  is  the  tail.  For  they  that 
lead  this  people  cause  them  to  err,  and  they  that  are  led 
of  them  are  swallowed  up."  ^ 

The  following  verses  furnish  one  of  the  numerous 
pictures  of  the  anarchy  and  abounding  misery  of  these 
evil  days.  "  For  wickedness  burneth  as  the  fire  :  it 
devoureth  the  briers  and  thorns  ;  yea,  it  kindleth  in  the 
thickets  of  the  forest,  and  they  roll  upwards  in  thick 
clouds  of  smoke.  Through  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  of 
hosts  is  the  land  burnt  up ;  the  people  also  are  the  fuel 
of  fire :  no  man  spareth  his  brother.  And  one  shall 
snatch  on  the  right,  and  be  hungry  ;  and  he  shall  eat  on 
the  left  hand,  and  they  shall  not  be  satisfied  :  they  shall 
eat  every  man  the  flesh  of  his   own   arm :    Manasseh, 

'  Isa.  ix.  H-16.  With  this  passage  comp.  2  Kings  xxiii.  5;  Zeph. 
i.  4;  Hos.  vii.  9,  10. 


234  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Ephraim ;  and  Ephraim,  Manasseh  :  and  they  together 
shall  be  against  Judah.  For  all  this  His  anger  is  not 
turned  away,  but  His  hand  is  stretched  out  still." 

We  are  told  in  the  Book  of  Kings  that  Pekah  reigned 
for  twenty  years  ;  but  some  of  these  later  reigns  must  be 
shortened  to  suit  the  exigencies  of  known  chronological 
data.  It  seems  probable  that  he  occupied  the  throne 
for  a  much  shorter  time.^ 

Such  was  the  weakened,  harassed,  vassal  kingdom — 
the  gaunt  spectre  of  itself — to  the  throne  of  which,  after 
a  period  of  anarchy  and  chaos,  Hoshea,  by  conspiracy 
and  murder,  succeeded  as  the  miserable  feudatory  of 
Assyria. 

•  Tiglath-Pileser  says  :  "  Pakaha,  their  king,  I  killed  :  Ausi  [Hoshea] 
I  placed  over  them.  The  distant  land  of  Bit-Khumri  [the  "house  of 
Omri  "] — the  whole  of  its  inhabitants,  with  their  goods — I  carried  away 
to  Asshur  "  (B.C.  734).  In  this  year  he  mentions  Ahaz  among  his 
tributaries. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

HOSHEA,  AND  THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM 

B.C.    734—725 

2  Kings  xvii.  i — 41 

"  As  for  Samaria,  her  king  is  cut  off  as  the  foam  upon  the  water." — 
Hos.  X.  7. 

AS  a  matter  of  convenience,  we  follow  our  English 
Bible  in  calling  the  prophet  by  the  name  Hosea, 
and  the  nineteenth,  last,  and  best  king  of  Israel  Hoshea. 
The  names,  however,  are  identical  (^P'^^),  and  mean 
"  Salvation  " — the  name  borne  by  Joshua  also  in  his 
earlier  days.  In  the  irony  of  history  the  name  of  the 
last  king  of  Ephraim  was  thus  identical  with  that  of 
her  earliest  and  greatest  hero,  just  as  the  last  of  Roman 
emperors  bore  the  double  name  of  the  Founder  of  Rome 
and  the  Founder  of  the  Empire — ^Romulus  Augustulus. 
By  a  yet  deeper  irony  of  events  the  king  in  whose 
reign  came  the  final  precipitation  of  ruin  wore  the 
name  which  signified  deliverance  from  it. 

And  more  and  more,  as  time  went  on,  the  prophet 
Hosea  felt  that  he  had  no  word  of  present  hope  or 
comfort  for  the  king  his  namesake.  It  was  the  more 
brilliant  lot  of  Isaiah,  in  the  Southern  Kingdom,  to 
kindle  the  ardour  of  a  generous  courage.  Like  Tyrtaeus, 
who  roused  the  Spartans  to  feel  their  own  greatness — 

235 


236  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


like  Demosthenes,  who  hurled  the  might  of  Athens 
against  Philip  of  Macedon — like  Chatham,  "  bidding 
England  be  of  good  cheer,  and  hurl  defiance  at  her 
foes " — like  Pitt,  pouring  forth,  in  the  days  of  the 
Napoleonic  terror,  "  the  indomitable  language  of  cour- 
age and  of  hope," — Isaiah  was  missioned  to  encourage 
Judah  to  despise  first  the  mighty  Syrian,  and  then  the 
mightier  Assyrian.  Far  different  was  the  lot  of  Hosea, 
who  could  only  be  the  denouncer  of  an  inevitable 
doom.  His  sad  function  was  like  that  of  Phocion  after 
Chseroneia,  of  Hannibal  after  Zama,  of  Thiers  after 
Sedan :  he  had  to  utter  the  Cassandra-voices  of 
prophecy,  which  his  besotted  and  demented  contem- 
poraries— among  whom  the  priests  were  the  worst  of 
all ' — despised  and  flouted  until  the  time  for  repentance 
had  gone  by  for  ever. 

True  it  is  that  Hosea  could  not  be  content — what 
true  heart  could  ? — to  breathe  nothing  but  the  language 
of  reprobation  and  despair.  Israel  had  been  "yoked 
to  his  two  transgressions,"'-  but  Jehovah  could  not  give 
up  His  love  for  His  chosen  people  : — 

"  How  shall  I  give  thee  up,   Ephraim  ? 
How  shall  I  surrender  thee,  Israel? 
How  shall  I  make  thee  as  Admah  ? 
How  shall  I  treat  thee  as  Zeboim  ? 
Mine  heart  is  turned  within  Me ; 
I  am  wholly  filled  with  compassion ! 

'  Hos.  iv.  4;  V.  I,  "Hear  ye  this,  O  priests  ...  ye  have  been  a 
snare  on  Mizpah,"  etc.  ;  vi.  9,  "The  company  of  the  priests  murder  by 
the  way  to  Shechcm. " 

-  Hos.  X.  10  (so  R.V.,  and  in  the  main  the  versions  after  the 
Hebrew  margin).  LXX.,  eV  ry  irai5ev(ff9a.i  airoiis  iv  rah  dvaiv  dSiKiati 
aiiTwv ;  Vulg.,  cttin  corripientur  propter  duas  iniqiiitates  sttas";  A.V,, 
"When  they  shall  bind  themselves  in  their  two  furrows."  I  believe 
that  the  " hvo  iniquities"  may  mean  iwo  cherubs  at  Bethel.  See 
X.  15:  "So  shall  Bethel  do  unto  you  because  of  the  evil  of  your  evil  " 


xvii.  1-41.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM   237 


I  will  not  execute  the  fierceness  of  Mine  anger  ; 

I  will  not  again  destroy  Ephraim : 

For  I  am  God,  and  not  man. 

The  Holy  One  in  the  midst  of  thee  ! 

I  will  not  come  to  exterminate  ! 
They  shall  come  after  Jehovah  as  after  a  lion  that  roars  ! 
For  he  shall  roar,  and  his  sons  shall  come  hurrying  from  the  west, 
They  shall  come  hurrying  as  a  bird  out  of  Egypt, 
And  as  a   dove  out  of  the  land  of  Assyria ; 
And  I  will  cause  them  to  dwell  in  their  houses, 
Saith  Jehovah."' 

Alas !  the  gleam  of  alleviation  was  imaginary  rather 
than  actual.  The  prophet's  wish  was  father  to  his 
thought.  He  had  prophesied  that  Israel  should  be 
scattered  in  all  lands  (ix.  3,  12,  17,  xiii.  3-16).  This 
was  true ;  and  it  did  not  prove  true,  except  in  some 
higher  ideal  sense,  that  "  Israel  shall  again  dwell  in  his 
own  land  "  (xiv.  4-7)  in  prosperity  and  joy. 

The  date  of  Hoshea's  accession  is  uncertain,  and  we 
cannot  tell  in  what  sense  we  are  to  understand  his 
I'eign  as  having  lasted  "nine  years."  ^  We  have  no 
grounds  for  accepting  the  statement  of  Josephus  (Antt., 
IX.  xiii.  i),  that  Hoshea  had  been  a  friend  of  Pekah 
and  plotted  against  him.  Tiglath-Pileser  expressly 
says  that  he  himself  slew  Pekah  and  appointed  Hoshea.^ 
His  must  have  been,  at  the  best,  a  pitiful  and  humiliating 
reign.  He  owed  his  purely  vassal  sovereignty  to 
Assyrian  patronage.  He  probably  did  as  well  for 
Israel  as  was  in  his  power.  Singular  to  relate,  he  is 
the  only  one  of  all  the  kings  of  Israel  of  whom  the 
historian  has  a  word  of  commendation  ;  for  while  we 

•  Hos.  xi.  8-1 1. 

'^  2  Kings  xvii.  I  is  inconsistent  with  xv.  30,  33,  and  it  is  wholly 
useless  for  our  purpose  to  enter  into  complicated  chronological  hypo- 
theses, every  one  of  which  may  be  erroneous. 

3  Schrader,  K.  A.  T.,  p.  255. 


238  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

are  told  that  "  he  did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord,"  it  is  added  that  it  was  "  not  as  the  kings 
of  Israel  that  were  before  him."  But  we  do  not  know 
wherein  either  his  evil-doing  or  his  superiority  con- 
sisted. The  Rabbis  guess  that  he  did  not  replace  the 
golden  calf  at  Dan  which  Tiglath-Pileser  had  taken 
away  (Hos.  x.  6) ;  or  that  he  did  not  prevent  his 
subjects  from  going  to  Hezekiah's  passover.^  *'  It 
seems  like  a  harsh  jest,"  says  Ewald,  "  that  this  Hoshea, 
who  was  better  than  all  his  predecessors,  was  to  be  the 
last  king."  But  so  it  has  often  been  in  history.  The 
vengeance  of  the  French  Revolution  smote  the  innocent 
and  harmless  Louis  XVI.  and  Marie  Antoinette — not 
Louis  XIV.,  or  Louis  XV.  and  Madame  du  Pompadour. 
His  patron  Tiglath-Pileser  ended  his  magnificent 
reign  of  conquest  in  727,  soon  after  he  had  seated 
Hoshea  on  the  throne.  The  removal  of  his  strong 
grasp  on  the  helm  caused  immediate  revolt.  Phoenicia 
especially  asserted  her  independence  against  Shal- 
maneser  IV.  He  seems  to  have  spent  five  years  in  an 
unavailing  attempt  to  capture  Island-Tyre.  Meanwhile, 
the  internal  troubles  which  had  harassed  and  weakened 
Egypt  ceased,  and  a  strong  Ethiopian  king  named 
Sabaco  established  his  rule  over  the  whole  country,^ 

'  Seder  Olam,  xxii.  2;  2  Chron.  xxx.  6-1 1. 

-  See  Herod.,  ii.  137;  called  So  (Heb.,  So  or  Seve)  in  2  Kings 
xvii.  4.  Perhaps  Shebek,  the  founder  of  the  twenty-fifth  dynasty. 
LXX.,  7l7)ywp;  Vu\g.,  Stia  ;  Miinetho,  Sabachoit.  In  the  Epottym  Canon 
he  is  called  an  Egyptian  general,  Sibakhi,  who  helped  Gaza  against 
Assyria,  and  was  defeated.  The  ka  appended  at  the  end  of  his  name 
(Egyptian  Shaba-ka)  is  thought  by  some  to  be  the  Cushite  article. 
The  race  of  the  priest  Hirhor  died  out  with  Piankhi,  and  the 
Ethiopians  elected  a  noble  named  Kashta.  Shabak  was  his  son. 
He  conquered  Sais,  and  burnt  his  rival  Bek-en-raut  alive  (b.c.  724). 
His  dynasty  ruled  for  fifty  years ;  he  was  succeeded  by  Sevechus 
(Shabatok),  and  he  by  Tehrak  (Tirhakah). 


xvii.  1-41.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM    239 


It  was  perhaps  the  hope  that  Phoenicia  might  hold  out 
against  the  Assyrian,  and  that  the  Egyptian  might 
protect  Samaria,  which  kindled  in  the  mind  of  Hoshea 
the  delusive  plan  of  freeing  himself  and  his  impover- 
ished land  from  the  grinding  tribute  imposed  by  Nineveh. 
While  Shalmaneser  ^  was  trying  to  quell  Tyre,  Hoshea, 
having  received  promises  oF  assistance  from  Sabaco, 
withheld  the  "  presents  " — the  minchah,  as  the  tribute 
is  euphemistically  called — which  he  had  hitherto  paid. 
Seeing  the  clanger  of  a  powerful  coalition,  Shalmaneser 
swept  down  on  Samaria  in  724.  Possibly  he  defeated 
the  army  of  Israel  in  the  plain  of  Jezreel  (Hos.  i.  5), 
and  got  hold  of  the  person  of  Hoshea.  Josephus  says 
that  he  "  besieged  him  "  ;  but  the  sacred  historian  only 
tells  us  that  "  he  shut  him  up,  and  bound  him  in 
prison."  Whether  Hoshea  was  taken  in  battle,  or 
betrayed  by  the  Assyrian  party  in  Samaria,  or  whether 
he  went  in  person  to  see  if  he  could  pacify  the  ruthless 
conqueror,  he  henceforth  disappears  from  history  "  like 
foam  " — or  like  a  chip  or  a  bubble — ''upon  the  water." 
We  do  not  know  whether  he  was  put  to  death,  but 
we  infer  from  an  allusion  in  Micah  that  he  was  subjected 
to  the  cruel  indignities  in  which  the  Assyrians  delighted  ; 
for  the  prophet  says,  "  They  shall  smite  the  Judge  of 
Israel  with  a  rod  upon  the  cheek."  ^  Perhaps  in  the 
title  "Judge"  (Shophet,  suffes)  we  may  see  a  sign  that 
Hoshea's  royalty  was  little  more  than  the  shadow  of  a 
name. 

Having  thus  got  rid  of  the  king,  Shalmaneser  pro- 
ceeded to  invest  the  capital.  But  Samaria  was  strongly 
fortified  upon  its  hill,  and  the  Jewish  race  has  again 

'  His  name  means  "  Salman,  pardon."    We  have  no  monuments  or 
inscriptions  of  this  king;  only  an  imperial  weight. 
*  MJc.  V.  J, 


240  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


and  again  shown — -as  it  showed  so  conspicuously  in  the 
final  crisis  of  its  destiny,  when  Jerusalem  defied  the 
terrible  armies  of  Rome — that  with  walls  to  protect 
them  they  could  pluck  up  a  terrible  courage  and 
endurance  from  despair.  Strong  as  Assyria  was,  the 
capital  of  Ephraim  for  three  years  resisted  her  belea- 
guering host  and  her  crashing  battering-rams.  About 
all  the  anguish  which  prevailed  within  the  city,  and  the 
wild  vicissitudes  of  orgy  and  starvation,  history  is  silent. 
But  prophecy  tells  us  that  the  sorrows  of  a  travailing 
woman  came  upon  the  now  kingless  city.  They 
drank  to  the  dregs  the  cup  of  fury.^  The  saddest 
Northern  prophet,  "the  Jeremiah  of  Israel,"  sings  the 
dirge  of  Israel's  saddest  king.^ 

"  I  am  become  to  them  as  a  lion ; 

As  a  leopard  will  I  watch  by  the  way; 

I  will  meet  them  as  a  bear  bereaved  of  her  whelps, 

And  rend  the  caul  of  their  heart, 

And  there  will  I  devour  them  like  a  lioness : 

The  beast  of  the  field  shall  tear  them.  .  .  . 
Where  now  is  thy  king,  that  he  may  save  thee  in  all  thy  cities  ? 
And   thy  judges,  of  whom   thou   saidst,   'Give   me  a    king   and 
prince '  ? 

I  give  thee  a  king  in  Mine  anger. 

And  take  him  away  in  My  wrath." 

For  three  years  Samaria  held  out.  During  the  siege 
Shalnianeser  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Sargon,  who — 
though  he  vaguely  talks  of  "  the  kings  his  ancestors," 
and  says  that  he  had  been  preceded  by  three  hundred 
and  thirty  Assyrian  dynasts — never  names  his  father, 
and  seems  to  have  been  a  usurping  general.^ 

'  Hos.  xiii.  13. 

^  Hos.  xiii.  7-1 1.  The'prophecy  is  rhythmic,  though  not  written  in 
actual  poetry. 

="  Till  the  discovery  of  the  Assyrian  records,  Sargon  (Sharru-kenu, 
"the  faithful  king")  was  but  a. name.     Th<^  Jews  knew  but  little  of 


xvii.  1-41.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM   241 

Sabaco  remained  inactive,  and  basely  deserted  the 
miserable  people  which  had  relied  on  his  protection.  In 
this  conduct  Egypt  was  true  to  its  historic  character  of 
untrustworthiness  and  inertness.  Both  in  Israel  and 
in  Judah  there  were  two  political  parties.  One  relied 
on  the  strength  of  Egypt ;  .the  other  counselled  sub- 
mission to  Assyria,  or — in  the  hour  when  it  became 
necessary  to  defy  Assyria — confidence  in  God.  Egypt 
was  as  frail  a  support  as  one  of  her  own  paper-reeds, 
which  bent  under  the  weight,  and  broke  and  ran  into 
the  hand  of  every  one  who  leaned  on  it. 

Sargon  did  not  raze  the  city,  and  we  see  from  the 
Eponym  Canon  that  its  inhabitants  were  still  strong 
enough  some  years  later  to  take  part  in  a  futile  revolt. 
But  we  have  one  dreadful  glimpse  of  the  horrors  which 
he  inflicted  upon  it.     They  were  the  inevitable  punish- 

him.  He  is  but  once  mentioned  in  Scripture  (Isa.  xx.  l),  and  was 
probably  confused  by  some  Jews  with  other  kings.  Yet  he  reigned 
sixteen  years  (722-705),  and  his  records  give  the  annals  of  fifteen 
campaigns.  In  720  he  crushed  a  confederacy  headed  by  Yahubid  of 
Hamath,  and  reduced  that  city  to  a  "heap  of  ruins."  He  then 
advanced  against  Hanno,  King  of  Gaza,  who  was  in  alliance  with 
Sabaco,  and  defeated  the  combined  forces  of  the  Philistines  and 
Egyptians  at  Raphia,  half-way  between  Gaza  and  the  Wady-el-Arish, 
"  the  torrent  [iiachaf\  of  Egypt."  Sargon  was  at  the  time  too  much 
occupied  with  other  enemies  to  pursue  his  advantage  over  Egypt ;  for 
Armenia,  Media,  and  other  countries  needed  his  attention.  This 
encouraged  Ashdod  to  rebel,  and  its  king,  Azuri,  refused  his  tribute 
(see  Isa.  xx.  i).  Sargon  deposed  him,  and  put  his  brother  Ahimit  in 
his  place.  Relying  on  Egyptian  promises,  Philistia  joined  Judah, 
Edom,  and  Moab  in  defying  Assyria.  They  deposed  Ahimit  as  an 
Assyrian  nominee,  and  put  Yaman  in  his  place.  Egypt,  as  usual,  failed 
to  help,  and  in  711  the  Assyrian  Turtan,  or  Commander-in-chief,  took 
Ashdod  after  three  years'  resistance,  and  carried  its  people  into 
captivity.  The  punishment  of  Egypt  was  reserved  for  the  subsequent 
reigns  of  Esarhaddon  (681-668)  and  Assurbanipal.  See  Driver's 
Isaiah  xlv,  (Isa.  xx.).  Isa,  xiv.  29-32  is  an  ode  of  triumph  for  the 
Fall  of  Philistia. 
^  16 


^42  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

merit  of  every  conquered  city  which  had  dared  to  resist 
the  Assyrian  arm. 

"  Samaria  shall  bear  her  guilt, 
For  she  hath  rebelled  against  her  God. 
They  shall  fall  by  the  sword : 
Their  infants  shall  be  dashed  in  pieces, 
And  their  women  in  child  shall  be  ripped  up." ' 

Sargon's  own  record  of  the  matter  on  the  tablets  at 
Khorsabad  is  :  "I  besieged,  took,  and  occupied  the  city 
of  Samaria,  and  carried  into  captivity  twenty-seven 
thousand  two  hundred  and  eighty  of  its  inhabitants. 
I  changed  the  former  government  of  this  country,  and 
placed  over  it  lieutenants  of  my  own.  And  Sebeh, 
Sultan  of  Egypt,  came  to  Raphia  to  fight  against  me. 
They  met  me,  and  I  routed  them.  Sebeh  fled,"  ^  The 
Assyrians  were  occupied  in  the  unsuccessful  siege  of 
Tyre  between  720-715,  during  which  years  Sargon  put 
down  Yahubid  of  Hamath,  whose  revolt  had  been  aided 
by  Damascus  and  Samaria.  In  710  he  marched  against 
Ashdod  (Isa.  xx.  i).  In  709  he  defeated  Merodach- 
Baladan  at  Dur-Yakin,  and  reconquered  Chaldaea, 
deporting  some  of  the  population  into  Samaria.  In 
704,  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  reign,  he  was  assas- 
sinated, after  a  career  of  victory.  He  inscribes  on  his 
palace  at  Khorsabad  a  prayer  to  his  god  Assur,  that, 
after  his  toils  and  conquests,  "  I  may  be  preserved  for 
the  long  years  of  a  long  life,  for  the  happiness  of  my 
body,  for  the  satisfaction  of  my  heart.  May  I  accu- 
mulate in  this  palace  immense  treasures,  the  booties  of 
all  countries,  the  products  of  mountains  and  valleys." 
Assur  and  the  gods  of  Chaldaea  were  invoked  in  vain  ;■ 

'  Hos.  xiii.  16. 

'■*  See  De  Hincks  in  Journ.  of  Sacr.  Lit.,  October  1858 ;  Layard, 
Nin,  and  Bab.,  i.  148. 


xvii.  I -4 1.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM   243 

the  prayer  was  scattered  to  the  winds,  and  the  murderer's 
dagger  was  the  comment  on  Sargon's  happy  anticipa- 
tions of  peace  and  splendour. 

Israel  fell  unpitied  by  her  southern  neighbour,  for 
Judah  was  still  smarting  under  memories  of  the  old 
contempt  and  injury  of  Joash  ben-Jehoahaz,  and  the 
more  recent  wrongs  inflicted  by  Pekah  and  Rezin. 
Isaiah  exults  over  the  fate  of  Samaria,  while  he  points 
the  moral  of  her  fall  to  the  drunken  priests  and  prophets 
of  Jerusalem.  "  Woe,"  he  says,  "  to  the  crown  of 
pride  of  the  drunkards  of  Ephraim,  and  to  the  fading 
flower  of  his  glorious  beauty,  which  is  on  the  head  of 
the  fat  valley  of  them  that  are  smitten  down  with  wine  1 
Behold,  the  Lord  hath  a  mighty  and  strong  one  \t.e.,  the 
Assyrian]  ;  as  a  tempest  of  hail,  a  destroying  storm, 
as  a  tempest  of  mighty  water  overflowing,  shall  he  cast 
down  to  the  earth  with  violence.  The  crown  of  pride, 
the  drunkards  of  Ephraim,  shall  be  trodden  underfoot  : 
and  the  fading  flower  of  his  glorious  beauty,  which 
is  on  the  head  of  the  fat  valley,  shall  be  as  the  first 
ripe  fig  before  the  summer ;  which  when  he  that 
looketh  upon  it  seeth,  while  it  is  yet  in  his  hand  he 
eateth  it  up."^  Israel  had  begun  in  hostility  to  Judah, 
and  perished  by  it  at  last. 

Such,  then,  was  the  end  of  the  once  brilliant  kingdom 
of  Israel — the  kingdom  which,  even  so  late  as  the  reign 
of  Jeroboam  II.,  seemed  to  have  a  great  future  before 
it.  No  one  could  have  foreseen  beforehand  that,  when, 
with  the  prophetic  encouragement  of  Ahijah,  Jeroboam  I. 
established  his  sovereignty  over  the  greater,  richer, 
and  more  flourishing  part  of  the  land  assigned  to  the 
sons  of  Jacob,  the  new  kingdom  should  fall  into  utter 
ruin  and  destruction  after  only  two  and  a  half  centuries 
'  Isa.  xxviii.  1-4. 


244  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


of  existence,  and  its  tribes  melt  away  amid  the  sur- 
rounding nations,  and  sink  into  a  mixed  and  semi-heathen 
race  without  any  further  nationaHty  or  distinctive 
history.  It  seemed  far  less  probable  that  the  mere 
fragment  of  the  Southern  Kingdom,  after  retaining  its 
separate  existence  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty 
years  longer  than  its  more  powerful  brother,  should 
continue  to  endure  as  a  nation  till  the  end  of  time. 
Such  was  the  design  of  God's  providence,  and  we 
know  no  more.  The  Northern  Kingdom  had,  up  to 
this  time,  produced  the  greatest  and  most  numerous 
prophets — Ahijah,  Elijah,  Elisha,  Micaiah,  Jonah, 
Amos,  Hosea,  Nahum,  and  many  more.^  It  had  also 
produced  the  loveliest  and  most  enduring  poetry  in 
the  Song  of  Songs,  the  Song  of  Deborah,  and  other 
contributions  to  the  Books  of  Jashar,  and  of  the  Wars 
of  Jehovah.  It  had  also  brought  into  vigour  the 
earliest  and  best  historic  literature,  the  narratives  of 
the  Elohist  and  the  Jehovist.  These  immortal  legacies 
of  the  religious  spirit  of  the  Northern  Kingdom  were 
incomparably  superior  in  moral  and  enduring  value  to 
the  Levitic  jejuneness  of  the  Priestly  Code,  with  its 
hierarchic  interests  and  ineffectual  rules,  which,  in  the 
exaggerated  supremacy  attached  to  rites,  proved  to  be 
the  final  blight  of  an  unspiritual  Judaism.  Israel  had 
also  been  superior  in  prowess  and  in  deeds  of  war, 
and  in  the  days  of  Joash  ben-Jehoahaz  ben-Jehu  had 
barely  conceded  to  Judah  a  right  to  separate  existence. 
More  than  all  this,  the  apostasies  of  Judah,  from  the 
days  of  Solomon  downwards,  were  quite  as  heinous  as 
Jezebel's  Baal-worship,  and  far  more  deadly  than  the 
irregular  but  not  at  first  idolatrous  cultus  of  Bethel. 

'  2  Kings  xvii.  13,  "  by  all  the  prophets,  and  all  the  seers  "  (chozeh), 
Havernick  thinks  that  the  ficbfim  were  such  offkially. 


xvii.  1-41.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM   2.-15 

The  prophets  are  careful  to  teach  Judah  that  if  she  was 
spared  it  was  not  because  of  any  good  deservings.^  Yet 
now  the  cedar  was  scathed  and  smitten  down,  and  its 
boughs  were  rent  and  scattered ;  and  the  thistle  had 
escaped  the  wild  beast's  tread  I 

In  the  former  volume  we  glanced  at  some  of  the 
causes  of  this,  and  the  blessings  which  resulted  from 
it.  The  central  and  chiefest  blessing  was,  first,  the 
preservation  of  a  purer  form  of  monotheism,  and  a 
loftier  ideal  of  religion — though  only  realised  by  a  few 
in  Judah — than  had  ever  prevailed  in  the  Northern 
Tribes;  secondly,  and  above  all,  the  development  of  that 
inspiring  Messianic  prophecy  which  was  to  be  fulfilled 
seven  centuries  later,  when  He  who  was  David's  Son 
and  David's  Lord  came  to  our  lost  race  from  the  bosom 
of  the  Father,  and  brought  life  and  immortality  to 
light. 

And  it  was  the  work  purely  of  "  God's  unseen 
providence,  by  men  nicknamed  *  Chance,'  "  which,  dealing 
with  nations  as  the  potter  with  his  clay,  chooses  some 
to  honour  and  some  to  dishonour.  For,  as  all  the 
prophets  are  anxious  to  remind  the  Judsean  Kingdom, 
their  success,  the  procrastination  of  their  downfall, 
their  restoration  from  captivity,  were  not  due  to  any 
merits  of  their  own.  The  Jews  were  and  ever  had  been 
a  stiff-necked  nation  ;  and  though  some  of  their  kings 
had  been  faithful  servants  of  Jehovah,  yet  many  of  them 
— like  Rehoboam,  and  Ahaz,  and  Manasseh — exceeded 
in  wickedness  and  inexcusable  apostasy  the  least 
faithful  of  the  worshippers  at  Gilgal  and  Bethel.  They 
were  plainly  reminded  of  their  nothingness :  "  And 
thou   shalt  speak  and    say  before    the  Lord  thy  God, 

'  See  Amos  ii.  4,  5;  Isa,  xxviii.  15;  Jer,  xvi.  19,  20;  Ezek. 
XX.  13-30,  etc. 


246  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

A  Syrian  ready  to  perish  was  my  father,  and  he  went 
down  into  Egypt,  and  sojourned  there  with  a  few,  and 
became  there  a  nation."  ^  "  Fear  not,  thou  worm  Jacob  : 
I  will  help  thee."  ^ 

But  this  was  the  end  of  the  Ten  Tribes.  Nor  must 
we  say  that  Hosea's  prediction  of  mercy  was  laughed 
to  scorn  by  the  irony  of  events,  when  he  had  given  it 
as  God's  promise  that — 

"  I  will  not  execute  the  fierceness  of  Mine  anger, 
I  will  not  again  destroy  Israel  ; 
For  I  am  God,  and  not  man.''^ 

The  words  mean  that  mercy  is  God's  chiefest  and 
most  essential  attribute ;  and,  after  all,  a  nation  is 
composed  of  families  and  individuals,  and  in  political 
extinction  there  may  have  been  many  families  and 
individuals  in  Israel,  like  that  of  Tobias,  and  like  that 
of  Anna,  the  prophetess  of  the  tribe  of  Asher,  who 
found,  either  in  their  far  exile,  or  among  the  scattered 
Jews  who  still  peopled  the  old  territories,  a  peace  which 
was  impossible  during  the  distracted  anarchy  and 
deepening  corruption  of  the  whole  period  which  had 
elapsed  since  the  founding  of  the  house  of  Omri.  In 
any  case  God  knows  and  loves  His  own.     The  words, 

"  I  will  not  execute  the  fierceness  of  Mine  anger ; 
For  I  am  God,  and  not  man," 

might  stand  for  an  epitome  of  much  that  is  most 
precious  in  Holy  Writ.  God's  orthodoxy  is  the  truth ; 
and  the  truth  remaineth,  though  man's  orthodoxy  exer- 
cises all  its  fury  and  all  its  baseness  to  overwhelm  it. 
What  hope  has  any  man,  even  a  St.  Paul — what 
hope    had    even  the  Lord  Himself — before   the  harsh, 

'  Deut,  xxvi.  5.  ^  Isa.  xli.  14.  ^  Hos.  xi,  9. 


xvii,  I -4 1.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM   247 

self-interested  tribunals  of  human  judgment,  or  of  that 
purely  external  religionism  which  has  always  shown 
itself  more  brutal  and  more  blundering  than  secular 
cruelty  ?  What  chance  has  there  been,  humanly  speak- 
ing, for  God's  best  saints,  prophets,  and  reformers,  when 
priests,  popes,  or  inquisitors  have  been  their  judges  ? 
If  God  resembled  those  generations  of  unresisted  eccle- 
siastics, whose  chief  resort  has  been  the  syllogism  of 
violence,  and  whose  main  arguments  have  been  the 
torture-chamber  and  the  stake,  what  hope  could  there 
possibly  be  for  the  vast  majority  of  mankind  but  those 
endless  torments  by  the  terrors  of  which  corrupt 
Churches  have  forced  their  tyranny  upon  the  crushed 
liberties  and  the  paralysed  conscience  of  mankind  ? 
The  Indian  sage  was  right  who  said  that  *'  God  can 
only  be  truly  described  by  the  words  No  1  No  I  " — 
that  is,  by  repudiating  multitudes  of  the  ignoble  and 
cruel  basenesses  which  religious  teachers  have  imagined 
or  invented  respecting  Him.  Because  God  is  God,  and 
not  man — God,  not  a  tyrant  or  an  inquisitor — God, 
with  the  great  compassionate  heart  of  unfathomable 
tenderness, — therefore,  in  all  who  truly  love  Him, 
perfect  love  casteth  out  fear,  because  fear  hath  torment. 
Sin  means  ruin  ;  yet  God  is  love.^ 


The  historian  of  the  Kings  here  digresses,  in  a  manner 
unusual  to  the  Old  Testament,  to  give  us  a  most  in- 
teresting glimpse  of  the  fate  of  the  conquered  people, 
and  the  origin  of  the  race  which  was  known  to  after- 
ages  by  the  name  "Samaritan." 

Sargon,  when  he  had  sacked  the  capital,  carried  out 
the  policy  of  deportation  which  had  now  been  estab- 

'  See  my  Minor  Prophets,  6-97. 


248  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

lished  by  the  Assyrian  kings.  He  achieved  the  double 
purpose  of  populating  the  capital  and  province  of 
Nineveh,  while  he  reduced  subject  nations  to  inanition, 
by  sweeping  away  all  the  chief  of  the  inhabitants  from 
conquered  states,  and  settling  them  in  his  own  more 
immediate  dominions.  There  they  would  be  reduced 
to  impotence,  and  mingle  with  the  races  among  whom 
their  lot  would  henceforth  be  cast.  He  therefore 
"  carried  Israel  away "  into  Assyria,  and  placed  them 
in  Halah,  north  of  Thapsacus,  on  the  Euphrates,  and 
in  Habor,  the  river  of  Gozan ' — i.e.,  on  the  river 
in  Northern  Assyria  which  still  bears  the  name  of 
Khabour,  and  flows  into  the  Euphrates — and  in  the 
cities  of  the  Medes.^  He  replaced  the  old  population 
by  Dinaites,  Tarpelites,  Apharsathchites,  Susanchites, 
Elamites,  Dehavites,  and  Bab3^1onians,  after  carrying 
away  the  great  bulk  of  the  better-class  population.^ 

After  this  the  historian  pauses  to  sum  up  and 
emphasise  once  more  the  main  lesson  of  his  narrative. 
It  is  that  "  righteousness  exalteth  a  nation,  and  sin 
is  the  reproach  of  any  people."  God  had  called  His 
son  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  delivered  His  chosen  from 
Pharaoh,  given  them  a  pleasant  land  ;  but  "  Israel  had 
sinned  against  Jehovah  their  God,  and  had  feared 
other  gods,  and  walked  in  the  statutes  of  the  heathen," 
They  had  failed  therefore  in  fulfilling  the  very  purpose 

'  Not  as  in  A.V.,  "  Habor,  by  the  river  of  Gozan." 

^  2  Kings  xvii.  6.  The  LXX.  has  "  rivers "  and  "  mountains  " : 
fv  'AXa^  (cat  ev  'A/Stjp  iroTa/xois  Tw^av  Kal  6pri  MtjSoh'.  The  river  is  not 
Ezekiel's  Chebar.  These  deportations  en  masse  of  a  whole  population, 
with  their  women  and  children,  their  waggons  and  flocks,  are  depicted 
on  Sargon'e  series  of  tablets  in  his  splendid  palace  at  Khorsabad. 

•''  Ezra  iv,  lO.  "  The  great  and  noble  Asnapper  "  of  the  passage 
is  either  some  Assyrian  general,  or  a  confusion  of  the  name 
Assurbanipal. 


xvii.  1-41.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM  249 


for  which  they  had  been  set  apart.  They  had  been 
intended  "  to  upHft  among  the  nations  the  banner  of 
righteousness"  and  the  banner  of  the  One  True  God. 
Instead  of  this,  they  were  seduced  by  the  heathen 
ritual  of 

"Gay  religions  full  qf  pomp  and  gold." 

They  decked  out  ahen  institutions/  and  ahke  in  fre- 
quented and  populous  places — "  from  the  tower  of  the 
watchmen  to  the  fenced  city"— set  up  matstseboth 
(A. v.,  "pillars")  and  Asherim  on  every  high  hill.  The 
green  trees  became  obumbratrices  scelerum,  the  secret 
bowers  of  their  iniquities.  They  burnt  incense  on  the 
bamoth,  and  served  idols,  and  wrought  wickedness. 
Useless  had  been  the  voices  of  all  the  prophets  and  the 
seers.  They  went  after  vain  things,  and  became  vain. 
Beginning  with  the  two  "  calves,"  they  proceeded 
to  lewd  and  orgiastic  idolatries.  Ahab  and  Jezebel 
seduced  them  into  Tyrian  Baal-worship.  From  the 
Assyrians  they  learnt  and  practised  the  adoration  of 
the  host  of  heaven.^  From  Moab  and  Ammon  they 
borrowed  the  abominable  rites  of  Moloch,  and  used 
divination  and  enchantments  by  means  of  belomancy 
(Ezek.  xxi.  21,  22)  and  necromancy,  and  sold  them- 
selves to  do  wickedness. 


'  2  Kings  xvii.  g.  Heb.,  "  covered  "  ;  A.V.  and  R.V.,  "  did  secretly," 
rather  "  perfidiously  "  ;  LXX.,  rjiKpUcravTO  \6yovs  dSiKovs  Kara.  Kijpiov  ; 
Vulg.,  Ei  offenderunt  verbis  non  rectis  dominunt  suiini. 

^  Star-worship  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant 
(Exod.  xx.-xxiii.)  or  the  oldest  sections  of  the  Mosaic  Law.  It  is 
first  forbidden  in  Deut.  iv.  19,  xvii.  3,  when  contact  with  Syrians 
and  Assyrians  made  it  known  (comp.  Job  xxxi.  26-28 ;  Jer.  viii.  2, 
xix.  13  ;  Zeph.  i.  5).  The  language  of  2  Kings  vii.-xxiii.  frequently 
reflects  the  prohibitions  of  Deuteronomy  (see  Deut.  xii.  2,  30,  31, 
iv.  19,  V.  7)  8,  xvi.  21,  xviii.  10,  xxxi.  16,  etc. 


250  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Nor  was  this  all.  These  idolatries,  with  their  guilty 
ritualism,  were  not  confined  to  Israel,  but  also 

"  Infected  Zion's  daughters  with  like  heat, 
Whose  wanton  passions  in  the  sacred  porch 
Ezekiel  saw,  when,  by  the  vision  led, 
His  eye  surveyed  the  dark  idolatries 
Of  alienated  Judah." 

And  thus,  when  Jehovah  afflicted  the  seed  of  Israel 
and  cast  them  out  of  His  sight,  Judah  also  had  to  feel 
the  stroke  of  retribution.^ 

And  it  is  idle  to  object  that  even  if  Israel  had  been 
faithful  she  must  have  inevitably  perished  before  the 
superior  might  of  Damascus,  or  Nineveh,  or  Babylon. 
How  can  we  tell  ?  It  is  not  possible  for  us  thus  to 
write  unwritten  history,  and  there  is  absolutely  nothing 
to  show  that  the  surmise  is  correct.  In  the  days  of 
David,  of  Uzziah,  of  Jeroboam  II.,  Judah  and  Israel 
had  shown  what  they  could  achieve.  Had  they  been 
strong  in  faithfulness  to  Jehovah,  and  in  the  righteous- 
ness which  that  faith  required,  they  would  have  shown 
an  invincible  strength  amid  the  moral  enervation  of 
the  surrounding  people.  They  might  have  held  their 
own  by  welding  into  one  strong  kingdom  the  whole  of 
Palestine,  including  Philistia,  Phoenicia,  the  Negeb,  and 
the  Trans-Jordanic  region.  They  might  have  consoli- 
dated the  sway  which  they  at  various  times  attained 
southwards,  as  far  as  the  Red  Sea  port  of  Elath; 
northwards  over  Aram  and  Damascus,  as  far  as  the 
Hamath  on  the  Orontes  ;  eastwards  to  Thapsacus  on 
the  Euphrates  ;  westward  to  the  Isles  of  the  Gentiles. 

'  In  2  Kings  xvii.  il,  for  "they  did  wicked  things,"  the  LXX, 
has  KOivuvoiis  {i-e.,  qedeshlni)  ixdpa^av  Kai  eraipiSas  Qjedeshoth')  ;  i.e., 
they  had  depraved  hieroduli  oi  both,  sexes.  Comp.  Hos.  iv,  14;  Gen. 
xxxviii,  21  (where  the  allusion  is  to  one  of  the  votaries  of  Asherah). 


xvii.  1-41.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM  251 

There  is  nothing  improbable,  still  less  impossible,  in  the 
view  that,  if  the  Israelites  had  truly  served  Jehovah  and 
obeyed  His  laws,  they  might  then  have  permanently 
established  the  monarchy  which  was  ideally  regarded 
as  their  inheritance,  and  which  for  brief  and  fitful 
periods  they  partially  maintained.  And  such  a  mon- 
archy, held  together  by  warrior  statesmen,  strong  and 
righteous,  and  above  all  secure  in  the  blessing  of  God, 
would  have  been  a  thoroughly  adequate  counterpoise, 
not  only  to  dilatory  and  distracted  Egypt,  which  had 
long  ceased  to  be  aggressive,  but  even  to  brutal 
Assyria,  which  prevailed  in  no  small  measure  because 
of  the  isolation  and  mutual  dissension  of  these  southern 
principalities. 

But,  as  it  was,  "  Assyria  and  Egypt — the  two  world- 
powers  in  the  dawn  of  history,  the  two  chief  sources 
of  ancient  civilisation,  the  twin  giant-empires  which 
bounded  the  Israelite  people  on  the  right  hand  and  on 
the  left — were  cruel  neighbours,  between  whom  the  ill- 
fated  nation  was  tossed  to  and  fro  in  wanton  sport  like 
a  shuttlecock.  They  were  cruel  friends  before  whom 
it  must  cringe  in  turns,  praying  sometimes  for  help, 
suing  sometimes  for  very  life — alternate  scourges  in 
the  hand  of  the  Divine  wrath.  Now  it  is  the  fly  of 
Egypt,  and  now  it  is  the  bee  of  Assyria,  whose 
ruthless  swarms  issue  forth  at  the  word  of  Jehovah, 
settling  in  the  holes  of  the  rocks,  and  upon  all  thorns, 
and  upon  all  bushes,  with  deadly  sting,  fatal  to  man 
and  beast,  devastating  the  land  far  and  wide.  Holding 
the  poor  Israelite  in  their  relentless  embrace,  they 
threatened  ever  and  again  to  crush  him  by  their  grip. 
Like  the  fabled  rocks  which  frowned  over  the  narrow 
straits  of  the  Bosporus,  they  would  crash  together 
and  annihilate  the  helpless  craft  which  the  storms  of 


252  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

destiny  had  placed  at  their  mercy.  Israel  reeled  under 
their  successive  blows.  As  was  the  beginning,  so  was 
the  end.  As  the  captivity  of  Egypt  had  been  the 
cradle  of  the  nation,  so  was  the  captivity  of  Assyria 
to  be  its  tomb."  ^ 

In  any  case  the  principle  of  the  historian  remains 
unshaken.  Sin  is  weakness ;  idolatry  is  folly  and 
rebellion ;  uncleanness  is  decrepitude.  St.  Paul  was 
not  thinking  of  this  ancient  Philosophy  of  History 
when  he  wrote  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans ;  yet  the 
intense  and  masterly  sketch  which  he  gives  of  that 
moral  corruption  which  brought  about  the  long,  slow, 
agonising  dissolution  of  the  beauty  that  was  Greece, 
and  the  grandeur  that  was  Rome,  is  one  of  its  strongest 
justifications.  His  view  only  differs  from  the  summary 
before  us  in  the  power  of  its  eloquence  and  the 
profoundness  of  its  psychologic  insight.  He  says  the 
same  thing  as  the  historian  of  the  Kings,  only  in  words 
of  greater  power  and  wider  reach,  when  he  writes  : 
"  For  the  wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven  against 
all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of  men,  who  hold 
down  the  truth  in  unrighteousness.  Knowing  God, 
they  glorified  Him  not  as  God,  neither  gave  thanks  ; 
but  became  vain  in  their  reasonings  "  (^ifiaraiMOrja-av, 
the  very  word  used  in  the  LXX,  in  2  Kings  xvii.  15), 
"  and  their  senseless  heart  was  darkened.  Professing 
themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools "  (words 
which  might  describe  the  expediency-policy  of  Jero- 
boam I.,  and  its  fatal  consequences),  "and  changed 
the  glory  of  the  incorruptible  God  for  the  likeness  of 
an  image  of  corruptible  man,  and  of  birds,  and  four- 
footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things.  For  this  cause 
God  gave  them  up  to  passions  of  dishonour,  and  unto 
'  Bishop  Lightfoot,  Sermons,  p.  267. 


xvii.  1-41.]    THE  FALL'JDF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM   253 

a  reprobate  mind,  to  do  those  things  which  are  not 
fitting,  being  filled  with  all  unrighteousness,  wickedness, 
covetousness,  maliciousness,  full  of  envy,  murder,  strife, 
deceit,  malignity," — and  so  on,  through  a  long  catalogue 
of  iniquities  which  are  identical  with  those  which  we 
find  so  burningly  denounced  on  the  pages  of  the 
prophets  of  Israel  and  Judah. 

Even  a  Machiavelli,  cool  and  cynical  and  audacious 
as  was  his  scepticism,  could  see  and  admit  that 
faithfulness  to  religion  is  the  secret  of  the  happiness 
and  prosperity  of  states.^  An  irreligious  society  tends 
inevitably  and  alwa3's  to  be  a  dissolute  society  ;  and  a 
"  dissolute  society  is  the  most  tragic  spectacle  which 
history  has  ever  to  present — a  nest  of  disease,  of 
jealousy,  of  dissensions,  of  ruin,  and  despair,  whose 
last  hope  is  to  be  washed  off  the  world  and  disappear. 
Such  societies  must  die  sooner  or  later  of  their  own 
gangrene,  of  their  own  corruption,  because  the  infection 
of  evil,  spreading  into  unbounded  selfishness,  ever 
intensifying  and  reproducing  passions  which  defeat 
their  own  aim,  can  never  end  in  anything  but  moral 
dissolution."  We  need  not  look  further  than  the 
collapse  of  France  after  the  battle  of  Sedan,  and  the 
cause  to  which  that  collapse  was  attributed,  not  only 
by  Christians,  but  by  her  own  most  worldly  and 
sceptical  writers,  to  see  that  the  same  causes  ever 
issue  and  will  issue  in  the  same  ruinous  effects. 


In  order  to  complete  the  history  of  the  Northern 
Kingdom,  the  historian  here  anticipates  the  order  of  time 

*  "  La  quale  Religione  se  ne  Principi  della  Republica  Christiana  si 
fusse  mantenuta,  secondo  che  dal  dottore  d'essa  ne  fu  ordinate, 
sarebbero  gli  State  e  le  Republiche  Christiane  piu  unite  e  piii  felici 
assai  ch'  elle  non  sono  "  {Discorsi,  i,  12). 


'ISA  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


by  telling  us  what  happened  to  the  mongrel  population 
whom  Sargon  transplanted  into  central  Ephraim  in  place 
of  the  old  inhabitants. 

The  king,  we  are  told,  brought  them  from  Babylon 
— which  was  at  this  time  under  the  rule  of  Assyria ; 
from  Cuthah — by  which  seems  to  be  meant  some  part 
of  Mesopotamia  near  Babylon  ; '  from  Avva,  or  Ivah — 
probably  the  same  as  Ahavah  or  Hit,  on  the  Euphrates, 
north-west  of  Babylon  ;  from  Sepharvaim,  or  Sippara, 
also  on  the  Euphrates  ;  ^  and  from  Hamath,  on  the  Oron- 
tes,  which  had  not  long  remained  under  Jeroboam  11.^ 
It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  whole  population 
of  Ephraim  was  deported ;  that  was  a  physical  im- 
possibility. Although  we  are  told  in  Assyrian  annals 
that  Sargon  carried  away  with  him  so  vast  a  number 
of  captives,  it  is,  of  course,  clear  that  the  lowest  and 
poorest  part  of  the  population  was  left.'*  We  can 
imagine  the  wild  confusion  which  arose  when  they 
found  themselves  compelled  to  share  the  dismantled 
palaces  and  abandoned  estates  of  the  wealthy  with 
the  horde  of  new  colonists,  whose  language,  in  all 
probability,  they  but  imperfectly  understood.  There 
must  have  been  many  a  tumult,  many  a  scene  of  horror, 
such  as  took  place  in  the  long  antagonism  of  Normans 

'  2  Kings  xvii.  24.     Comp,  xviii.  34.     Hence  the  later  Jews  com- 
prehensively called  the  Samaritans  Cuthites.     Comp.  2  Kings  xix.  13 
Isa.  xxxvii.  13. 

'■'  Heliopolis,  Ptolemy,  v.  18,  §  7;  Isa.  xxxvi.  19.  Here,  according 
to  the  Chaldsean  legends,  Xisuthrus  buried  his  tablets  about  the 
Creation,  etc. 

*  From  Ezra  iv.  2  some  infer  that  the  main  immigrants  were 
introduced  by  Esarhaddon,  who  did  not  succeed  till  b.c.  681.  He 
claims  to  have  colonised  Syria. 

'  So  we  see  from  2  Kings  xix.  13,  which  applies  to  the  reign  of 
Hezekiah. 


Jcvii.  1-41.]   THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM  255 


and  Saxons  in  England,  before  the  immigrants  and  the 
reHcs  of  the  former  populace  settled  down  to  amalgama- 
tion and  mutual  tolerance. 

Sargon  is  said  to  have  carried  away  with  him  the 
golden  calf  or  calves  of  Bethel,  as  Tiglath-Pileser  is 
said  by  the  Rabbis  to  have  carried  away  that  of  Dan.-^ 
He  also  took  away  with  him  all  the  educated  classes, 
and  all  the  teachers  of  religion.^  No  one  was  left  to 
instruct  the  ignorant  inhabitants ;  and,  as  Hosea  had 
prophesied,  there  was  neither  a  sacrifice,  nor  a  pillar, 
nor  an  ephod,  and  not  even  teraphim  to  which  they 
could  resort.^  Naturally  enough,  the  disunited  dregs  of 
an  old  and  of  a  new  population  had  no  clear  knowledge 
of  religion.  They  "  feared  not  Jehovah."  The  sparse- 
ness  of  inhabitants,  with  its  consequent  neglect  of 
agriculture,  caused  the  increase  of  wild  beasts  among 
them.  There  had  always  been  lions  and  bears  in  "  the 
swellings  of  Jordan,"'^  and  in  all  the  lonelier  parts  of 
the  land ;  and  to  this  day  there  are  leopards  in  the 
woods  of  Carmel,  and  hyaenas  and  jackals  in  many 
regions.  Conscious  of  their  miserable  and  godless 
condition,  and  afflicted  by  the  lions,  which  they  re- 
garded as  a  sign  of  Jehovah's  anger,  the  Ephraimites 
sent  a  message  to  the  King  of  Assyria.  They  only 
claimed  Jehovah  as  their  local  god,  and  complained 
that  the  new  colonists  had  provoked  the  wrath  of  "  the 
God  of  the  land  "  by  not  knowing  His  "  manner  " — that 


'  See  Appendix,  "The  Golden  Calves." 

^  He  uses  the  agency  of  "the  great  and  noble  Asnapper  "  (Ezra 
iv.  10)  for  the  deportation  (see  Botta,  145  ;  Layard,  Nin.  and  Bab., 
i.  148;  Dr.Hincks,  yof«r.  ofSacr.  Lit.,  October  1858^,  unless  Asnapper 
be  a  confusion  for  Assurbanipal  (Sardanapalus). 

•*  Hos.  ill.  4. 

*  See  Jer.  xlix.  19,  1.  44;  Prov.  xxii.  13,  etc. 


256  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

is,  the  way  in  which  He  should  be  worshipped.  The 
consequence  was  that  they  were  in  danger  of  being 
exterminated  by  Hons.  The  kings  of  Assyria  were 
devoted  worshippers  of  Assur  and  Merodach,  but  they 
held  the  common  belief  of  ancient  polytheists  that  each 
country  had  its  own  potent  divinities.  Sargon,  there- 
fore, gave  orders  that  one  of  the  priests  of  his  captivity 
should  be  sent  back  to  Samaria,  **  to  teach  them  the 
manner  of  the  god  of  the  land."  The  priest  selected 
for  the  purpose  returned,  took  up  his  residence  at  the 
old  shrine  of  Bethel,  and  "  taught  them  how  they 
should  fear  Jehovah."  His  success  was,  however, 
extremely  limited,  except  among  the  former  followers 
of  Jeroboam's  dishonoured  cult.  The  old  religious 
shrines  still  continued,  and  the  immigrants  used  them 
for  the  glorification  of  their  former  deities.  Samaria, 
therefore,  witnessed  the  establishment  of  a  singularly 
hybrid  form  of  religionism.  The  Babylonians  worshipped 
Succoth-Benoth,^  perhaps  Zirbanit,  wife  of  Merodach 
or  Bel ;  the  Cuthites  worshipped  Nergal,  the  Assyrian 
war-god,  the  lion-god ;  ^  the  Hittites,  from  Hamath, 
worshipped  Ashima  or  Esmun,  the  god  of  air  and 
thunder,  under  the  form  of  a  goat ;  ^  the  Avites  pre- 
ferred Nibhaz  and  Tartak,  perhaps  Saturn — unless 
these  names  be  Jewish  jeers,  implying  that  one  of  these 


'  Lit.,  "Daughter-huts"  (Selden,  De  Dis  Syr.,  ii.  7),  but  probably 
a  transliteration.  Zarpanit — "She  who  gives  seed  " — was  Aphrodite 
Pandemos  (Mylitta — Herod.,  i.  199).  The  Rabbis — who  only  guess- 
say  she  represented  "  the  Clucking  Hen  " — i.e.,  the  Pleiades.  There 
does  not  seem  to  be  any  connection  between  Succoth  and  "  Sakkuth," 
the  various  reading  in  Amos  v.  26,  which  seems  to  be  the  Assyrian 
Moloch. 

*  Said  to  be  worshipped  under  the  form  of  a  cock. 

^  LXX.,  'E/3\af^/).  Jarchi  says  these  deities  were  worshipped 
under  base  animal  forms — but  it  is  more  than  doubtful. 


xvii.  1-41.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM    257 

deities  had  the  head  of  a  dog,  and  the  other  of  an  ass.^ 
More  dreadful,  if  less  ridiculous,  was  the  worship 
of  the  Sepharvites,  who  adored  Adrammelech  and 
Anammelech,  the  sun-god  under,  male  and  female  forms, 
to  whom,  as  to  Moloch,  they  burnt  their  children  in  the 
fire.  As  for  ministers,  "  they  made  unto  them  priests 
from  among  themselves,''^  who  offered  sacrifices  for  them 
in  the  shrines  of  the  bamoth."  Thus  the  whole  mongrel 
population  "feared  the  Lord,  and  served  their  own 
gods,"  as  they  continued  to  do  in  the  days  of  the 
annalist  Whose  record  the  historian  quotes.  He  ends 
his  interesting  sketch  with  the  words,  that,  in  spite  of 
the  Divine  teaching,  "  these  nations  " — so  he  calls  them, 
and  so  completely  does  he  refuse  to  them  the  dignity  of 
being  Israel's  children — feared  the  Lord,  and  served 
their  graven  images,  their  children  likewise,  and  their 
children's  children, — ^"as  did  their  fathers,  so  do  they 
unto  this  day."  ^ 

The  "  unto  this  day  "  refers,  no  doubt,  to  the  docu- 
ment from  which  the  historian  of  the  Kings  was  quoting 
— perhaps  about  b.c.  560,  in  the  third  generation  after 
the  fall  of  Samaria.  A  very  brief  glance  will  suffice  to 
indicate  the  future  history  of  the  Samaritans.  We  hear 
but  little  of  them  between  the  present  reference  and 
the  days  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  By  that  time  they 
had  purged  themselves  of  these  grosser  idolatries,  and 
held  themselves  fit  in  all  respects   to  co-operate  with 

'  The  Rabbis,  from  Exod.  xxiii.  13  ;  Josh,  xxiii.  7,  thought  they 
were  bound  to  give  scornful  nicknames  to  heathen  deities.  Hence 
such  changes  as  Kir-Heres  for  Kir-Cheres,  Beelzebub  for  Beelzebul, 
Bethaven  for  Bethel,  Bosheth  for  Baal,  etc. 

-  Not  as  in  A.V.,  "  of  the  lowest  of  them,"  but  "  of  all  classes." 
Comp.  I  Kings  xii.  31. 

^  In  2  Kings  xvii.  31-38  we  again  find  repeated  references  to 
Deuteronomy  (iv.  23,  v.  32,  x.  20,  etc.). 

17 


258  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


the  returned  exiles  in  the  work  of  building  the  Temple. 
Such  was  not  the  opinion  of  the  Jews.  Ezra  regarded 
them  as  "  the  adversaries  of  Judah  and  Israel."  ^  The 
exiles  rejected  their  overtures.  In  b.c.  409  Manasseh, 
a  grandson  of  the  high  priest  expelled  by  Nehemiah 
for  an  unlawful  marriage  with  a  daughter  of  Sanballat, 
of  the  Samaritan  city  of  Beth-horon,  built  the  schismatic 
temple  on  Mount  Gerizim.-  The  relations  of  the 
.Samaritans  to  the  Jevvs  became  thenceforth  deadly.  In 
B.C.  175  they  seconded  the  profane  attempt  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  to  paganise  the  Jews,  and  in  e.g.  130 
John  Hyrcanus,  the  Maccabee,  destroyed  their  temple. 
They  were  accused  of  waylaying  Jews  on  their  way 
to  the  Feasts,  and  of  polluting  the  Temple  with  dead 
bones.^  They  claimed  Jewish  descent  (John  iv,  12), 
but  our  Lord  called  them  "aliens"  (aWoyev^^,  Luke 
xvii.  18),  and  Josephus  describes  them  as  "resi- 
dents from  other  nations  "  (fxeTotKot,  aXXx)edv€i<;).  They 
are  now  a  rapidly  dwindling  community  of  fewer 
than  a  hundred  souls — "  the  oldest  and  smallest  sect 
in  the  world  " — equally  despised  by  Jews  and 
Mohammedans.  The  Jews,  as  in  the  days  of  Christ, 
have  no  dealings  with  them.  When  Dr.  Frankl,  on  his 
philanthropic  visit  to  the  Jews  of  the  East,  went  to  see 
their  celebrated  Pentateuch,  and  mentioned  the  fact  to 
a  Jewish  lady — "Whatl"  she  exclaimed:  "have  you 
been  among  the  worshippers  of  the  pigeon  ?    Take  a 


'  Ezra  iv.  I.  The  actual  word  "  Samaritans"  occurs  only  once  in 
the  Old  Testament,  in  2  Kings  xvii.  29. 

-  See  Neh.  xiii.  4-9,  28,  29;  Jos.,  Antt,  XI.  vii.  2.  Josephus  makes 
Manasseh  a  brother  of  the  high  priest  Jaddua  (b.c.  333). 

^  Jos.,  And.,  IX.  xiv.  3,  XII.  V.  5,  XIII.  ix.  i,  XX.  vi.,  XVIII.  ii.  2. 
The  bitterly  hostile  relations  between  Jews  and  Samaritans  in  the 
time  of  Christ  are  illustrated  by  Luke  ix.  52-54. 


xvii.  1-41.]    THE  FALL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOM   259 

purifying  bath !  "  Regarding  Gerizim  as  the  place 
which  God  had  chosen  (John  iv.  20),  they  alone  can 
keep  up  the  old  tradition  of  the  sacrificial  passover. 
For  long  centuries,  since  the  Fall  of  Jerusalem,  it  is 
only  on  Gerizim  that  the  Paschal  lambs  and  kids  have 
been  actually  slain  and  eaten,  as  they  are  to  this  day, 
and  will  be,  till,  not  long  hence,  the  whole  tribe 
disappears. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  REIGN  OF  AHAZ 

B.C.    735—715 

2  Kings  xvi.   i — 20 

"  Rimmon,  \A?hose  delightful  seat 
"Was  fair  Damascus,  on  the  fertile  banks 
Of  Abbana  and  Pharphar,  lucid  streams. 
He  also  against  the  House  of  God  was  bold : 
A  leper  once  he  lost,  and  gained  a  king — 
Ahaz,  his  sottish  conqueror,  whom  he  drew 
God's  altar  to  disparage  and  displace 
For  one  of  Syrian  mode,  whereon  to  burn 
His  odious  offerings,   and  adore  the  gods 
Whom  he  had  vanquished." 

Paradise  Lost,  i.  467 — 476. 

ACCORDING  to  our  authorities,  Ahaz  ("Posses- 
sor ")  ^  began  his  reign  of  sixteen  years  at  the  age 
of  twenty.  Of  the  exactitude  of  these  references  we 
cannot  be  certain,  because  they  also  state  (2  Kings 
xviii.  2)  that  Hezekiah  was  twenty-five  years  old  when 
he  began  to  reign,  and  this  reduces  us  to  the  absurdity 
of  supposing  that  Hezekiah  was  born  when  his  father 
was  only  eleven  years  old.^  We  might  infer  from 
Isa.  iii.  4  that  Ahaz  was  not  so  old  as  twenty  when  he 

'  Probably  a  shortened  form  for  Jehoahaz  ("  The  Lord  taketh  hold  "). 
He  is  called  Jahuhazi  in  Tiglath-Pileser's  inscription  (Schrader, 
Keilinschr.,  p.  163). 

^  For  twenty-five  it  is  not  improbable  that  we  should  read  fifteen. 
260 


jif^ 


xvi.  I-20.]  THE  REIGN  OF  AHAZ  261 


succeeded  Jotham ;  for  there — in  a  terrible  prophecy 
which  can  only  refer  to  the  beginning  of  this  reign — we 
read,  "  And  I  will  give  children  to  be  their  princes,  and 
babes  shall  rule  over  them  "  ;  or,  as  it  should  be  perhaps 
rendered,  "  And  with  childishness,  or  wilfulness,  shall 
they  rule  over  them." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  king's  age,  surely  never 
king  succeeded  to  a  more  distracted  kingdom,  or  reigned 
over  a  more  terrified  people  !  If  he  could  have  had  any 
choice  in  the  matter,  he  might  well  have  declined  the 
fearful  burden.  Describing  the  state  of  things,  the  great 
prophet  Isaiah,  who  now  began  his  career,  exclaims, — 

"  For,  behold,  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  hosts,  doth  take 
away  from  Jerusalem  and  from  Judah  stay  and  staff, 
the  whole  stay  of  bread,  and  the  whole  stay  of  water ; 
the  mighty  man,  and  the  man  of  war,  the  judge,  and  the 
prophet,  and  the  diviner,  and  the  elder;  the  captain  of 
fifty,  and  the  honourable  man,  and  the  counsellor,  and 
the  cunning  charmer,  and  the  skilful  enchanter.  And  the 
people  shall  be  oppressed  every  one  by  another,  and 
every  one  by  his  neighbour  :  the  child  shall  behave 
himself  proudly  against  the  elder,  and  the  base  against 
the  honourable.  Then  a  man  shall  take  hold  of  his 
brother  in  the  house  of  his  father,  saying,  '  Thou  hast 
clothing,  be  thou  our  judge,  and  let  this  ruin  be  under 
thy  hand ' :  in  that  day  shall  he  lift  his  voice,  saying,  '  I 
will  not  be  a  builder-up ;  for  in  my  house  is  neither 
bread  nor  clothing  :  ye  shall  not  make  me  a  ruler  of  the 
people.'  For  Jerusalem  is  ruined  and  Judah  is  fallen. 
The  show  of  their  countenance  is  against  them  ;  and 
they  declare  their  sin  as  Sodom,  and  hide  it  not.  As 
for  My  people,  children  are  their  oppressors,  and  women 
rule  over  them."  ^ 

'  Isa.  iii.  1-12. 


262  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


This  is  a  frightful  picture  of  famine — the  dearth  of 
intellect,  the  dearth  of  statesmen,  of  all  genius,  of  all 
insight.  It  describes  the  prevalence  of  oppression  and 
of  ghastly  destitution,  accompanied  by  such  utter  de- 
spair that  no  one  cared  to  exert  himself  for  the  arrest 
of  the  ruin  which  seemed  imminent  over  that  which 
was  already  no  better  than  itself  a  ruin. 

The  Book  of  Isaiah  is  arranged  in  a  most  confused 
and  unchronological  manner,  and  it  is  probable  that  the 
first  five  chapters  should  be  placed  after  the  sixth,  which 
describes  the  prophet's  call  in  the  year  that  King  Uzziah 
died.  They  paint  a  picture  of  moral  collapse.  His 
first  chapter  is  called  by  Ewald  "  the  great  arraignment," 
and  by  its  references  describes  the  awful  period  of  alarm 
during  the  war  of  Syria  and  Ephraim  against  Judah. 
It  might  seem  as  if  the  combined  host  was  even  then  in 
the  country,  or  had  only  just  retired  from  it ;  for  we 
■  read, — 

"  Your  country  is  desolate,  your  cities  are  burned 
with  fire  :  your  land,  strangers  devour  it  in  your  presence, 
and  it  is  desolate,  as  overthrown  by  strangers.  And  the 
daughter  of  Zion  is  left  as  a  booth  in  a  wilderness,  as  a 
lodge  in  a  garden  of  cucumbers,  as  a  besieged  city." 

But  even  in  the  midst  of  this  afflictive  dispensation 
there  were  no  signs  of  repentance.  The  children  of 
Israel  were  rebels  who  despised  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel, — "  Ah,  sinful  nation,  a  people  laden  with  iniquity, 
a  seed  of  evil-doers,  children  that  deal  corruptly ! " 
(i.  7-9).  They  had  all  the  externals  of  religion  :  they 
offered  vain  sacrifices,  and  kept  a  multitude  of  idle 
feasts,  and  offered  many  formal  prayers  ;  but  all  this 
was  but  a  cumbrance  to  Him  who  desired  clean  hands 
and  a  pure  heart  as  conditions  of  forgiveness  (10-20). 
What  hope  could  there  be  for  a  city  of  murderers,  who 


xvi.  r-2o.]  THE  REIGN  OF  AHAZ  263 

loved  bribes  and  perverted  judgment  (21-24)?  The 
land  was  full  of  pride,  full  of  idols,  full  of  the  luxury 
of  the  rich  amid  the  starvation  of  the  poor  (ii.  1-22).^ 
Women  partook  of  the  general  corruption.  They 
walked  mincingly  with  stretched-forth  necks  and 
wanton  eyes,^  thinking  of  ^nothing  but  their  anklets, 
and  crescents,  and  bracelets,  and  mufflers,  ear-drops, 
head-tires,  perfumes,  mirrors,  armlets,  and  nose-jewels  : 
therefore  they  should  have  sackcloth  for  stomachers, 
ropes  for  girdles,  and  burning  instead  of  beauty,  and 
only  a  remnant  should  escape  (iii.  i6-iv.  i).  Judah 
was  like  a  vineyard, — rich  in  advantages,  blessed  with 
fondest  care  ;  but  when  God  looked  for  grapes,  it  onl}' 
brought  forth  wild  grapes — a  semblance,  but  only  a 
poisoned  semblance,  of  the  true  vintage  :  therefore  it 
should  be  left  neglected  and  rainless.  Woe  to  the 
greedy  land-grabbing,  and  drunkenness,  and  revelry 
of  the  rich  !  Woe  to  their  mockery  of  God  and  their 
devotion  to  vanity !  Woe  to  their  insane  pride  and 
wanton  injustice  !  Could  they  escape  vengeance  ? 
No !  Jehovah  had  looked  for  judgment  (^mishpaf),  but 
behold  oppression  (jnishpaclt)  ;  for  righteousness  {tse'da- 
kah),  but  behold  a  cry  (tse^akaJt)  (v.  1-24).''  They 
might  escape — they  would  escape — the  Syrian  and  the 
Ephraimite ;  but  behind  these  lay  a  more  terrrible  and 


'  In  Isa.  ii.  2-4  we  find,  as  so  often  in  the  prophetic  books  in 
their  present  too-often-haphazard  arrangement,  a  glowing  promise  of 
universal  peace  placed  before  unsparing  denudations.  The  verses 
are  also  found  in  Micah  (iv.  i,  2),  and  it  has  been  conjectured  that  in 
both  prophets  they  are  a  quotation  from  some  older  source — perhaps 
from  Jonah,  son  of  Amittai. 

"^  Heb.,  "  deceiving  with  their  eyes." 

*  Isa.  V.  7.  The  paronomasia  of  the  original  is  striking.  Van  Oort 
renders  it,  "  He  looked  for  reason,  but  behold  treason ;  and  for  right, 
but  behold  affright." 


264  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


a  more  portentous  foe,  even  the  Assyrian,  the  scourge 
of  God's  wrath  (25-30). 

"  It  was  told  the  house  of  David,  saying,  Syria  is 
confederate  with  Ephraim."  Is  it  strange  that  in  such 
a  condition  of  things  the  heart  of  Ahaz  and  of  his 
people  "  was  moved  as  the  trees  of  the  wood  are  moved 
with  the  wind  "  ? 

Such  was  the  terrible  crisis  at  which  Isaiah  began 
his  ministry.  He  was  the  son  of  Amoz,^  who  has 
been  (much  too  precariously)  identified  with  a  brother 
of  Amaziah.  It  is  probable  that  he  was  a  man  of 
distinguished,  if  not  of  princely,  birth,  and  he  exercised 
a  more  powerful  influence  over  the  politics  of  his 
country  than  any  other  prophet — not  even  excepting 
Jeremiah. 


'  His  name  means  "  Jehovah  saves,"  and  is  perhaps  alluded  to  in 
Isa.  viii.  i8.  Amos  ("One  who  bears  a  burden"),  needless  to  say,  is 
a  totally  different  name  from  that  of  Amoz  ("Vigorous"),  the  father 
of  Isaiah. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

ISAIAH  AND  AHAZ 

2  Kings  xvi 

"  Expediency  is  man's  wisdom  ;  doing  right  is  God's." 

George  Meredith. 

ISAIAH  was  one  of  those  men  whom  God  provides 
for  the  need  of  kingdoms.  He  was  not  only  a 
prophet,  but  a  statesman,  a  reformer,  a  poet,  a  man  of 
invincible  faith  and  unequalled  insight.  If  Ahaz  had 
accepted  his  counsels  and  followed  his  moral  guidance, 
the  whole  history  of  Judah  might  have  been  different. 

But   the   position   of  things   was  indeed   disastrous. 
Judah  was  attacked   from  every  side.     On  the  south-~l 
east  the  Edomites  renewed  their  devastating  raids,  and 
swept    off  multitudes    of  captives,  who    were  sold   as 
slaves  in  the  Western  slave-markets.     On  the  south-, 
west    the    Philistines    once    more    rose    in    revolt,   and 
acquired  permanent  repossession  of  many  parts  of  the  , 
Shephelah,  mastering  Beth-Shemesh,  Ajalon,  Gederoth. , 
Shocho,  Timnath,  Gimzo,  and  all  the  adjacent  districts,  i 
But  this  was   nothing   compared  with  the  humiliation', 
and  destruction  inflicted  by  Rezin  and  Pekah.     They  i 
shut  up  Ahaz  in   Jerusalem ;  and   though   they  could 
not  storm  its  almost  impregnable  defences,  which  had 
recently   been    fortified    by    Uzziah  and  Jotham,   they 
were   undisputed   masters  of  the    rest  of  the  land,  so 

265 


266  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


that  Judah  was  "  brought  low  and  made  naked."  ^ 
Rezin,  indeed,  weary  of  a  tedious  siege,  swept  south- 
wards to  Elath,  on  the  gulf  of  Akabah,  seized  it,  and 
peopled  it  with  an  Edomite  garrison,  thereby  destroying 
the  commerce  in  which  Solomon  and  Jehoshaphat  had 
taken  pride,  and  which  Uzziah  had  recently  re-estab- 
lished. Having  thus  left  an  effectual  annoyance  to 
Judah  in  his  rear,  he  gave  up  the  design  of  dethroning 
Ahaz  and  substituting  in  his  place  "  the  son  of  Tabeal," 
who  would  have  been  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  the 
confederate  kings.  He  seized,  however,  a  multitude 
of  captives,  and  with  them  and  with  much  booty  he 
returned  to  Damascus.  "The  son  of  Tabeal" — a 
name  which  occurs  nowhere  else—  has  been  found  very 
puzzling.^  I  believe  it  to  be  simply  an  instance  of  the 
Rabbinic  process  of  transposition,  called  Themourah. 
Some  identify  it  with  Itibi'alu  of  an  inscription  of 
Tiglath-Pileser.  Others  suppose  that  he  was  a  Syrian, 
and  that  Tabeal  stands  for  Tabrimnon.  But  by  the 
application  of  Themourah  (called  the  A/bam)  Tabeal 
simply  gives  us  "  Remaliah,"  and  is  either  a  scornful 
variation  of  the  name  of  Pekah's  father,  or  has  arisen 
from  the  watchword  of  a  secret  conspiracy.  Since  in 
the  text  of  Jeremiah  (li.  41,  xxv.  26)  (by  Atbash, 
another  form  of  the  secret  transposition  of  letters  of 
which  the  generic  name  was  Gematria)  we  read  Sheshach 
for  Babel,  the  name  Tabeal  may  have  been  dealt 
with  in  a  similar  method.^  Pekah,  according  to  the 
Chronicler,  inflicted  far  deadlier  injuries  than  Rezin.  In 
one  day  he  slew  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  **  sons 


'  2  Chron.  xxviii.  19. 
*  It  may  mean  "  God  is  good  "  (Tabeel). 

•''  For  further  explanations  I  must  refer  to  my  paper  on  Rabbinic 
Exegesis  {Expositor,  First  Series,  v.  373). 


xvi.]  ISAIAH  AND  AHAZ  267 

of  valour,"  because  they  had  forsaken  Jehovah,  God  of 
their  fathers.  His  general  Zichri,  a  mighty  Ephraimite, 
slew  Maaseiah,  the  king's  son ;  ^  and  Azrikam,  the 
chancellor ;  and  Elkanah,  "  the  second  to  the  king," 
The  army  carried  away  two  hundred  thousand  captives 
and  much  spoil  to  Samaria.  But  on  their  arrival,  a 
prophet  named  Oded  ^  reproved  the  Israelites  for  having 
massacred  the  Judeeans  "in  a  rage  that  reacheth  to 
heaven."  Aided  by  various  princes,  he  succeeded  in 
inducing  the  people  to  refuse  to  harbour  the  captives, 
and  clothed,  fed,  and  sent  them  back  unharmed  to 
Jericho,  mounting  the  feeble  on  horses  and  asses. 
The  story  bears  on  the  face  of  it  the  signs  of  enormous 
exaggeration. 

In  the  crisis  of  their  miseries,  but  just  before  the 
siege,  Ahaz  had  gone  outside  the  city  walls  "  at  the 
end  of  the  conduit  of  the  upper  pool,  in  the  causeway 
of  the  fuller's  field,"  probably  to  look  after  the  water- 
supply,  which  had  always  been  a  difficulty  for  Jerusalem, 
and  on  which  depended  her  capacity  to  withstand  a 
siege.  Here  he  was  met  by  the  prophet  Isaiah,  who 
was  leading  by  the  hand  the  little  son  to  whom  he  had 
given  the  name  of  " Shear-jashub  "  ("A  remnant  shall 
return  "),^  as  a  witness  to  the  truth  of  the  prophecy 
which  he  had  heard  on  the  occasion  of  his  call, — 

**  And  if  there  should  yet  be  a  tenth  in  it,  this  shall 
be  again  consumed ;  yet  as  the  terebinth  and  the  oak, 
though  cut  down,  have  their  stock  remaining,  even  so  a 
sacred  seed  shall  be  the  stock  thereof"  * 


'  2  Chron.  xxviii.  7. 
-  Of  Oded  nothing  else  is  known. 

^  Some,  however,  interpret  the  name  "  A  remnant  repents  "  (LXX., 
6  KaraKeKpOeli  'laaov^ ;  Vulg.,  Qui  derelictits  estjaseb). 
*  Isa.  vi.  I^. 


268  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


The  object  of  the  prophet  was  to  cheer  up  the 
fainting  heart  of  the  king,  and  to  say  to  him  first, — 

"  Take  heed,  and  be  quiet." 

This  mandate  probably  refers  to  rumours — which 
Isaiah  must  have  heard — of  the  king's  intention  to 
follow  the  counsels  of  the  party  which  urged  him  to 
seek  foreign  assistance.  One  of  these  parties  advised 
him  to  throw  himself  into  the  arms  of  Egypt,  and  rely 
on  her  protection  ;  the  other  gave  the  more  perilous 
counsel  of  invoking  the  aid  of  Assyria.  Isaiah's 
mandate  to  the  king  and  to  the  nation  was  to  take 
neither  step,  but  to  trust  in  the  Lord,  and  to  repent 
of  individual  and  national  misdoing.  He  summed  up 
his  message  in  the  rule, — 

"  In  returning  and  rest  shall  ye  be  saved  ;  in  quietness 
and  confidence  shall  be  your  strength." 

The  advice  was  emphasised  by  a  promise  of  the 
most  decisive  and  encouraging  kind.  When  all  looked 
so  helpless,  the  prophet  was  bidden  to  say, — 

"  Fear  not,  neither  be  faint-hearted,  for  these  two 
stumps  of  smoking  torches,  for  the  fierce  anger  of 
Rezin  with  Syria,  and  of  Remaliah's  son.  They  have 
taken  evil  counsel  against  thee.  But  thus  saith  the 
Lord  God,  *  It  shall  not  stand,  neither  shall  it  come  to 
pass.  For  the  head  of  Syria  is  only  Rezin,  and  the 
head  of  Samaria  is  a  mere  Remaliah's  son.'"^ 

And  then,  to  confirm  the  lesson  of  confidence  in  God, 
the  brief  assurance. — 


'  The  words  "  And  within  threescore  and  five  j'ears  shall  Ephraim 
be  broken,  that  it  be  not  a  people  "  (Isa.  vii.  8),  are  almost  certainly 
an  interpolation:  for  (i)  the  overthrow  came  within  far  less  than 
sixty  years ;  (2)  the  clause  awkwardly  breaks  the  context ;  (3)  the 
"sixty  years  "  is  inconsistent  with  the  promise  (vii.  16)  that  it  should 
be  within  very  few  years. 


xvi.]  ISAIAH  AND  AHAZ  269 

"  If  ye  will  not  confide, 
Surely  ye  shall  not  abide." 

Convinced  of  the  certainty  of  this  immediate  deliver- 
ance, Isaiah  bade  the  king'to  ask. for  a  sign  from  Jehovah, 
either  in  the  height  above,  or  in  the  depth  beneath. 

But  the  timid  and  hypocritical  king  was  not  so  to 
be  influenced.  He  had  on  fiis  side  "  the  scornful  men, 
who  ruled  Judah  "  ;  the  mocking  priests,  who  sneered 
and  jeered  at  Isaiah's  teaching  as  repetitive  and 
commonplace,  and  only  fit  for  children  ;  and  the  princes 
and  nobles,  who  formed  the  Court  party,  headed  by 
Shebna  the  scribe.  He  probably  looked  on  Isaiah  as 
a  mere  unpractical  faddist,  an  excited  fanatic — all  very 
well  as  a  prophet,  but  not  a  man  who  ought  to  thrust 
himself  into  the  plans  of  politicians.  Ahaz  had  his 
own  plans,  and  he  had  not  the  smallest  intention  of 
altering  them  in  consequence  of  anything  which  Isaiah 
might  say.  He  was  far  too  timid  and  unfaithful  to  rely 
on  anything  so  vague  as  Divine  assurance.  He  was 
convinced  that  his  only  chance  lay  in  the  horses  of 
Egypt  or  the  fierce  infantry  of  Assyria.  So  he  said 
with  sham  piety,  merely  intended  to  put  the  prophet  off, 
"  I  will  not  ask,  neither  will  I  tempt  Jehovah." 

That  moment  marks  what  may  be  called  the  birth- 
throe  of  Messianic  prophecy  in  its  most  specific 
character.  For  then  the  prophet,  after  reproving  the 
king  for  wearying  Jehovah  as  well  as  His  servants, 
adds,  in  words  of  far  wider  and  deeper  significance  than 
their  immediate  bearing,  that  Jehovah  Himself  should 
give  a  sign ;  for  the  maiden  should  conceive  and  bear  a 
Son,  and  call  His  name  Immanuel  ("  God  with  us "). 
The  child  should  grow  up  in  a  time  of  scarcity ;  for 
owing  to  the  devastation  of  the  land,  he  would  only  be 
able  to  be  nurtured  on  curdled  milk  and  honey.      But 


270  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

before  he  had  reached  years  of  discretion — before  he 
had  arrived  at  the  power  of  moral  choice — the  land  whose 
two  kings  Ahaz  abhorred  should  be  a  desert.  Yet  let 
not  Ahaz  exult  too  much  in  the  immediate  deliverance  1 
Days  of  unexampled  misery  were  at  hand.  Jehovah 
should  hiss  for  the  fly  from  the  farthest  canals  of  Egypt, 
and  for  the  bee  of  Assyria,  and  they  should  .settle  in 
swarms  in  the  valleys  and  pastures.  Ahaz — he  had 
not  alluded  to  the  design,  but  Isaiah  knew  it  well— was 
about  to  hire  a  razor  from  beyond  the  Euphrates,  but 
that  razor  should  sweep  away  the  hair  and  beard  of 
Judah.  Agriculture  should  languish,  and  the  people 
should  only  be  able  to  live  in  privation  on  whey  and 
honey ;  and  the  vineyards  should  be  full  of  briers  and 
thorns,  and  should  be  mere  places  for  hunting.-^ 

This  event,  therefore,  as  Caspari  says,  stands  at  the 
turning-point  of  Old  Testament  History.  It  marks 
the  beginning  of  that  second  period  of  the  History  of 
the  Chosen  People  in  which  their  hopes  were  granted 
as  a  counterpoise  to  their  anguish  and  their  humiliation. 
"  It  stood,  therefore,  at  the  point  where  a  prospect 
offered  it.self  to  the  eye  of  the  prophet  which  reached 
out  over  the  whole  development  of  the  people  of  God." 

To  all  such  prophecies  Ahaz  was  utterly  deaf :  they 
did  not  for  a  moment  induce  him  to  swerve  from  his 
purpose.  But  to  call  still  further  attention  to  his 
promise  as  the  Syrian  Ephraimitish  host  pressed 
forward,  Isaiah  took  a  great  piece  of  vellum,  and 
inscribed  on  it,  in  the  ordinary  characters, — 

"  Speed-plunder-haste-spoil." 

He  put  it  up  in  some  conspicuous  place,  before  his  own 
house  or  in  the  Temple,  and  took  the  priest  Urijah  and 

'  Isa.  vii.  1-25. 


xvi.]  ISAIAH  AND   AHAZ  271 


Zecliariah,  the  son  of  Jeberechiah,  into  his  confidence  as 
faithful  witnesses.  He  told  them  the  explanation  of  his 
sign,  and  they  would  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  the  people 
on  the  subject.  It  meant  that  in  nine  months'  time  his 
wife  should  bear  a  son,  and  that  he  and  his  wife,  the 
prophetess,  would  call  the  boy's  name  "  Speed- 
plunder-haste-spoil,"  as  a  sign  that  before  the  child 
was  able  to  say  "  Father "  or  "  Mother  "  Rezin  and 
Pekah  should  be  extinguished.  For  the  Assyrian 
should  speed  to  the  plunder  and  haste  to  the  spoil,  and 
the  riches  of  Damascus  and  the  spoil  of  Samaria  should 
be  carried  away  by  the  King  of  Ass3Tia.  Since  Judah 
despised  "the  soft  flowing  waters  of  Shiloah,"^  and 
preferred  Rezin  and  Pekah,^  they  should  be  deluged 
by  the  Euphrates  of  Assyria,  and  Assyria's  outspread 
wings  should  overshadow  thy  land,  O  Immanuel  (viii. 
1-8).  How  vain,  then,  of  the  people  to  try  and  meet 
the  confederacy  of  Syria  and  Ephraim  by  new  con- 
federacy of  Judah  with  Assyria  !  This,  after  all,  is 
Immanuel's  land.  God  is  with  us.  We  have  but  to 
fear  God,  we  have  but  to  be  faithful  to  duty,  and 
Jehovah  shall  be  our  sanctuary,  though  He  be  a  stum- 
bling-block to  many  in  Israel,  and  a  snare  to  many  in 
Jerusalem.^  This  is  God's  teaching  and  God's  testimony, 
and  Isaiah  and  his  children  are  signs  of  it.  For  does 
not  Isaiah  mean  "  Salvation  of  Jehovah  "  ;  and  Shear- 
jashub,  "  A  remnant  shall  return  "  ;  and  Maher-shalal- 
hash-baz,    "  Swift-spoil-speedy-prey  "  ;  and  Immanuel, 

'  Not  improbably  the  water  which  afterwards  flowed  through  Heze- 
kiah's  new  tunnel  between  the  Virgin's  Tomb  and  the  Pool  of  Siloam.  It 
is  referred  to  in  2  Chron.  xxxii.3,  30  (Isa.  xxii.9-11).    See  Appendix  II. 

-  This,  if  it  be  correct,  can  only  mean  that  the  son  of  Tabeal  had 
a  party  in  Jerusalem ;  but  Hitzig  renders  it  "  dreadeth,"  not  "  re- 
joiceth  in." 

^  The  meaning  is  by  no  means  clear. 


272  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

**  God  is  with  us  "  ?  What  need,  then,  to  seek  wizards 
and  necromancers  ?  Seek  God ;  confide,  abide  !  ^ 
Trouble  and  darkness  there  should  be  ;  but  all  was  not 
utterly  hopeless.  Northern  Israel  had  been  bedimmed 
and  afflicted  ;  but  soon  they  should  be  exalted,  and  see 
light,  and  their  yoke  be  broken  as  in  the  day  of  Midian, 
and  the  trampling  boot  and  blood-stained  mantle  of 
the  warrior  shall  be  burned  in  the  fire  :  for  a  Child  is 
born,  a  Son  is  given  unto  us  of  David's  line,  who  shall 
be  a  Mighty  Deliverer,  a  Prince  of  Peace, — and  Israel 
shall  perish. 


'  See  Driver,  Isaiah,  p.  34. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  APOSTASIES  OF  AHAZ 

2  Kings  xvi.  i — 18 

"  For  when  we  in  our  wickedness  grow  hard, 
Oh  misery  on't !  the  wise  gods  seal  our  eyes ; 
In  our  own  filth  drop  our  clear  judgments;  make  us 
Adore  our  errors ;  laugh  at  us  while  we  strut 
To  our  confusion." 

AHAZ  was  indifferent  to  these  prophecies  because 
his  heart  was  otherwhere.  It  is  clear  from  our 
authorities  that  this  king  had  excited  an  unusually 
deep  antipathy  in  the  hearts  of  those  later  writers  who 
judged  religion  not  only  from  the  earlier  standpoint, 
but  from  the  stern  and  inexorable  requirements  of  the 
Deuteronomic  and  the  Priestly  Codes.  The  historian, 
adopting  an  unusual  phrase,  says  that  "  he  did  not 
that  which  was  right  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  but  he 
walked  in  the  ways  of  the  kings  of  Israel."  He  not 
only  continued  the  high  places,  as  the  best  of  his  pre- 
decessors had  done,  but  he  increased  their  popularity 
and  importance  by  personally  offering  sacrifices  and 
burning  incense  "  on  the  hills  and  under  every  green 
tree."  It  is  probable,  too,  that  he  introduced  into  Judah 
horses  and  chariots  dedicated  to  the  sun.^     "  He  made 

'  See  2  Kings  xxiii.  Ii,  which  shows  that  this  was  not  an  inno- 
vation of  Manasseh's.  They  were  common  in  Persia.  See  Q.  Curtius, 
iii.  3. 

273  18 


274  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

molten  images  for  the  Baalim,"  says  the  Chronicler, 
**  and  burnt  incense  in  the  valley  of  the  son  of 
Himmon." 

This  last  was  his  crowning  atrocity :  he  actually 
sanctioned  the  revolting  worship  of  the  abomination  of 
the  children  of  Ammon,  which  Solomon  had  tolerated 
on  the  mount  of  offence.  "  He  made  his  son  to  pass 
through  the  fire."  The  Chronicler  expresses  it  still 
more  dreadfully  by  saying  that  "  he  burnt  his  children 
in  the  fire."i 

In  the  Valley  of  Ben-Hinnom,  or  of  the  Beni-Hinnom, 
of  which  the  name  is  perpetuated  in  Gehenna,  the  place 
of  torture  for  lost  souls,  there  stood  a  frightful  image 
of  the  king — Moloch,  Melek,  Malcham.  It  represented 
the  sun-god,  worshipped,  not  only  as  Baal  under  the 
emblems  of  prolific  nature,  but,  like  the  Egyptian 
Typhon,  as  the  emblem  of  the  sun's  scorching  and 
blighting  force.  It  was  perhaps  a  human  figure  with 
the  head  of  an  ox.  The  arms  of  the  brazen  image 
sloped  downwards  over  a  cistern,  which  was  filled  with 
fuel ;  and  when  a  human  sacrifice  was  to  be  offered  to 
him,  the  child  was  probably  first  killed,  and  then  placed 
on  these  brazen  arms  as  a  gift  to  the  idol.  It  rolled 
down  into  the  flaming  tank,  and  was  consumed  amid 
the  strains  of  music.     Recourse  was  only  had  to  the 

'  2  Kings  xvii.  31  ;  Ezek.  xvi.  21,  xxiii.  37,  xxxiii.  6;  Deut.  xii.  31  ; 
Jer.  xix.  5.  See  2  Chron.  xxviii.  3;  for  "his  son,"  '133,  it  uses  Via 
"  his  sons,"  but  perhaps  generically.  Moloch-worship  may  have  been 
stimulated  by  accounts  of  the  Assyrian  fire-god  Adrammelech 
(Movers,  Phonis.,  ii.  loi).  On  this  sacrifice  of  children  to  Moloch, 
which  the  Phoenicians  referred  back  to  the  god  El  or  II,  once  King 
of  Byblos,  who  in  a  crisis  of  danger  sacrificed  his  eldest  son  Icond, 
see  Plut.,  De  Superst.,  §  13;  Diod.  Sic,  xx.  12-14;  2  Kings  iii.  27, 
xvi.  3,  xxi.  6 ;  Mic.  vi.  7  ;  Dollinger,  Judenthum  u.  Heidentlmm  (E.  T.), 
i.  427-429. 


xvi.  1-18.]  THE  APOSTASIES  OF  AHAZ  275 

most  frightful  form  of  human  sacrifice — the  burning  of 
grown-up  victims — in  extremities  of  disaster,  as  when 
Mesha  of  Moab  offered  up  his  eldest  son  to  Chemosh 
on  the  wall  of  Kir-Hareseth  in  the  sight  of  his  people 
and  of  the  three  invading  armies.  But  the  sacrifice 
of  children  was  public,  and. perhaps  annual.  Hence 
Milton,  following  the  learned  researches  of  Selden  in 
his  Syntagma  De  Dis  Syriis,  writes  : — 

"First,  Moloch,  horrid  king,  besmeared  with  blood 
Of  human  sacrifice,  and  parents'  tears ; 
Though,  for  the  noise  of  drums  and  timbrels  loud, 
Their  children's  cries  unheard  that  pass'd  through  fire 
To  his  grim  idol.     Him  the  Ammonite 
Worshipp'd  in  Rabba  and  her  watery  plain, 
In  Argob  and  in  Basan,  to   the  stream 
Of  utmost  Arnon.     Nor  content  with  such 
Audacious  neighbourhood,  the  wisest  heart 
Of  Solomon  he  led  by  fraud  to  build 
His  temple  right  against  the  Temple  of  God 
On  that  opprobrious  hill,  and  made  his  grove 
The  pleasant  Valley  of  Hinnom,  Tophet  thence 
And  black  Gehenna  call'd,  the  type  of  hell." ' 

But  it  may  be  doubted  whether  Ahaz,  in  spite  of  his 
frightful  position,  or,  in  later  days,  the  less  excusable 
Manasseh,  really  destroyed  the  lives  of  their  young 
sons.^  The  ancients  had  a  notion  that  they  could 
easily  cheat  their  devil-deities.  If  a  white  ox  of 
Clitumnus  became  unfitted  for  a  victim  to  Jupiter  of 
the  Capitol  by  having  on  its  body  a  few  black  spots,  it 


'  This  worship  was  to  be  punished  by  stoning  (Lev.  xviii.  21, 
XX.  2-5;  Deut.  xviii.  lo).  On  the  whole  subject  see  Movers,  Phottis., 
64  ;  Jarchi  onjer.  vii.  31 ;  Euseb.,  Prcep,  Ev.,  iv.  16. 

"^  Josephus  says  that  Ahaz  made  "a  whole  burnt-offering  "  of  his 
son  ;  but  his  authority  is  very  small  (/cat  'i5ioi>  CiKoKavruaev  iraiha). 
Comp.  Psalm  cvi.  37. 


276  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


was  quite  sufficient  to  make  it  pass  with  the  Difaciles 
by  chalking  the  black  spots  over  it.-^  If  human  victims 
had  to  be  thrown  into  the  Tiber  to  Hercules,  Numa 
taught  the  people  that  little  wickerwork  images  (scirped) 
would  suit  the  purpose  just  as  well.^  Figures  of  dough 
were  sometimes  offered  instead  of  human  beings  on  the 
altar  of  Artemis  of  Tauris.  Thus  it  became  the  custom, 
it  is  believed,  merely  to  throw  or  to  pass  children 
through  or  over  the  flames,  and  conventionally  to 
regard  them  as  having  been  sacrificed,  though  they 
might  escape  the  ordeal  with  little  or  no  hurt.  This 
was  cdiWed  februatio,  or  "lustration  by  fire."^  We  may 
hope  that  this  device  was  adopted  by  the  two  Judaean 
kings,  and,  if  so,  they  did  not  add  to  their  horrible 
apostasy  the  crime  of  infanticide.  If,  however,  Ahaz 
was  even  to  the  smallest  extent  implicated  in  such  foul 
idolatries,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  was  in  no  mood 
to  listen  to  Isaiah.  What  is  profoundly  surprising, 
and  is  indeed  a  circumstance  for  which  we  cannot 
account,  is  that  no  word  of  fierce  indignation  was 
addressed  to  him  on  this  account  by  Urijah,  the  high 
priest,  whom  Isaiah  seems  to  describe  as  faithful,  or 
by  Zechariah,  the  son  of  Jeberechiah,  or  by  Micah, 
or  by  Isaiah,  who  feared  man  so  little  and  God 
so  much. 

The  Assyrian  party  at  the  Court  of  Ahaz  prevailed 
over  the  Egyptian.     Until  the  accession  of  the  Ethiopian 


'  Ignorant  Romanists  have  often  cherished  the  same  notions  about 
the 'saints.  For  centuries  in  Spain  the  people  bought  the  old  gowns 
and  cowls  of  the  monks,  and  buried  their  dead  in  them,  to  deceive 
St.  Peter  into  the  notion  that  they  were  Dominicans  or  Franciscans ! 

■'  See  Ovid,  Fasti,  v,  659 :  "  Scripea  pro  domino  Tiberi  jactatur 
imago."     They  were  also  called  Argei,  id.  621  ;  Varro,  L.  L.,  vi.  3. 

^  Varro,  L.  L.,  v.  3. 


xvi.  1-18.]  THE  APOSTASIES    OF  AHAZ  277 


Sabaco^  in  725,  Egypt  was  indeed  in  so  weak,  harassed, 
and  divided  a  condition  under  feeble  native  Pharaohs, 
that  her  help  was  obviously  unavailable.  The  King  of 
Judah,  seeing  no  extrication  from  his  calamities  except 
in  the  way  of  worldly  expediency,  appealed  to  Tiglath- 
Pileser.  In  this  he  foUovved  the  precedent  of  his 
ancestor  Asa,  who  had  diverted  the  attack  of  Baasha 
by  invoking  the  assistance  of  Syria.  Ahaz  sent  to  the 
Assyrian  potentate  the  humble  message,  "  I  am  thy 
servaiit  and  thy  son  :  come  up  and  save  me  from  the 
Kings  of  Syria  and  Israel."  If  he  had  not  faith  to 
accept  Isaiah's  promises,  what  else  could  he  do,  when 
Syria,  Israel,  the  Philistines,  Edom,  and  Moab  were 
all  an-ayed  against  him  ?  The  ambassadors  probably 
made  their  way,  not  without  peril,  along  the  east  of 
Jordan,  or  else  by  sea  from  Joppa,  and  so  inland. 
Whether  they  took  with  them  the  enormous  bribe 
without  which  the  appeal  of  the  helpless  king  might 
have  been  in  vain,  or  whether  this  was  sent  sub- 
sequently under  Assyrian  escort,  we  do  not  know.  It 
was  euphemistically  described  as  "  a  present "  or  *'  a 
blessing,"  but  must  be  regarded  either  as  a  tribute  or 
a  bribe. 

Tiglath-Pileser  II.  saw  his  opportunity,  and  at 
once  invaded  Damascus.  In  b.c.  733  he  failed,  but 
the  next  year  he  entirely  subjugated  the  kingdom,  and 
put  an  end  to  the  dynasty,  Rezin  was  probably  put 
to  death  with  the  horrible  barbarities  which  were 
normal  among  the  brutal  Ninevites ;  and  as  the 
Assyrians  had  no  conception  of  colonisation  or  the 
wise  government  of  dependencies,  the  Syrian  popula- 

'  Herod.,  ii.  137,  Egypt.,  Sebek;  Heb.,  So  (2  Kings  xvii.  4),  or 
perhaps  Scve ;  Arab.,  Shab'i.  Rawlinson,  Hist,  of  And.  Egypt,  ii. 
433-450. 


278  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

tion  was  deported  en  masse  to  Elam  and  an  unknown 
Kir.^  For  a  time  Damascus  was  made  "a  ruinous 
heap,"  and  the  cities  of  Aroer  were  the  desolated  lairs 
of  pasturing  flocks.  Israel,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
next  overwhelmed  by  the  same  irremediable  catastrophe, 
irtone  of  her  people  being  left  except  such  as  might  be 
compared  to  the  mere  gleanings  of  a  vintage,  and  the 
few  berries  on  the  topmost  boughs  of  the  olive  tree.^ 

Tiglath-Pileser  meant  to  make  Ahaz  feel  his  yoke. 
He  summoned  him  to  do  homage  at  Damascus,  and 
there  Ahaz  once  more  displayed  his  cosmopolitan 
oestheticism  at  the  expense  of  every  pure  tradition 
of  the  religion  of  his  fathers. 

His  visit   to  Damascus  was  no   doubt  compulsory. 

His  worldly   policy,   which  looked  so  expedient,   and 

which — apart   from  the  defiance  which  it  involved   to 

the  voice  of  God  by  His  prophets — seemed  to  be  so 

pardonable,    had    for    the    time    succeeded.       Isaiah's 

promises  had  been  fulfilled  to  the  letter.     There  was 

nothing    more    to    fear    either    from    Rezin    or    from 

Remaliah's   son.     Their  kingdoms  were   a  desolation. 

In  his  own  annals  Tiglath-Pileser^  does  not  exaggerate 

his  achievements.*     He  wrote  as  follows  : — 

"  Rezin's  warriors  I  captured,  and  with  the  sword  I  destroyed. 
Of  his  charioteers  and  [his  horsemen]  the  arms  I  broke  : 

'  Kir  (see  Amos  ix.  7)  is  omitted  in  the  LXX.  Elam  is  added  in 
Isa.  xxii.  6.  Tiglath-Pileser  calls  the  king  Rasunnu  Sarimirisu — i.e., 
of  Aram.  See  Smith,  Assyr.  Discoveries,  p.  274;  Eponym  Canon,  68  ; 
Schrader,  K.  A.  T.,  152  ff".  ^  Isa.  xvii.  i-ii. 

^  The  name  seems  to  be  Tuklat-abal-isarra, — according  to  Oppert 
worshipper  of  the  son  of  the  Zodiac — i.e.,  of  Nin  or  Hercules. 
According  to  Polyhistor,  he  was  a  usurper  who  had  been  a  vine- 
dresser in  the  royal  gardens.  He  never  mentions  his  ancestry.  But 
see  Schrader,  K.  A.  T.,  217  ff.,  240  ff.,  and  in  Riehm. 

'  Eponym  Canon,  p.  121,  lines  1-15.  On  this  fall  of  Damascus  and 
Samaria,  see  Isa.  xvii. 


i-i8.]  THE  APOSTASIES  OF  AHAZ  279 


Their  bow-bearing   warriors,  [their   footmen]    armed    with    spear 

and  shield, 
With  my  hand  I  captured    them,  and  those  that  fought  in  their 

battle-Hne. 
He  to  save  his  Hfe  fled  away  alone  ; 

Like  a  deer  [he  ran],  and  entered  into  the  great  gate  of  his  city. 
His  generals,  whom  I  had  taken  alive,  on  crosses  I  hung ; 
His  country  I  subdued  ; 

Damascus,  his  city,  I  subdued,  and  like  a  caged  bird  I  shut  him  in. 
I  cut  down  the  unnumbered  trees  of  his  Ibrest ;  I  left  not  one. 
Hadara,  the  palace  of  the  father  of  Rezin  of  Syria,  [I  burnt]. 
The  city  of  Samaria  I  besieged,  I  captured  ;  eight  hundred  of  its 

people  and  children  I  took; 
Their  oxen  and  their  sheep  I  carried  away. 
I  took  five  hundred  and  ninety-one  cities ; 
Over  sixteen  districts  of  Syria  like  a  flood  I  swept." 

But  the  more  complete  destruction  of  Israel  was  due 
to  Shalmaneser  IV.,  who  says, — 

"  The  city  of  Samaria  I  besieged,  I  took, 
I  carried  away  twenty-seven  thousand  two  hundred  of  its  inhabit- 
ants ; 
I  seized  fifty  of  their  chariots. 

I  gave  up  to  plunder  the  rest  of  their  possess'ons. 
I  appointed  officers  over  them  ; 
I  laid  on  them  the  tribute  of  the  former  king. 
In  their  place  I  settled  the  men  of  conquered  countries." 

The  immediate  service  to  Judah  looked  immense. 
The  Assyrian  might  safely  claim,  and  Ahaz  might 
truthfully  confess,  that  the  intervention  of  Tiglath- 
Pileser  had  rescued  him  from  the  apparent  imminence 
of  destruction.  But  the  Assyrian  kings  served  no  one 
for  nothing.  The  price  which  had  to  be  paid  for 
Tiglath-Pileser's  intervention  was  vassalage  and  tribute. 
Ahaz,  or,  as  the  Assyrians  call  him,  Jehoahaz,^  had 


'  Jahuhazi  (Schrader,  Keilinschr.,  p.  263).  He  probably  bore  both 
names ;  but,  as  in  the  case  of  Jeconiah,  who  is  called  Coniah,  the 
omission  of  the  element  "  Jehovah  "  from  his  name  may  have  been 
intended  as  a  mark  of  reprobation. 


28o  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Styled  himself  Tiglath-Pileser's  "  servant  and  his  son," 
and  the  Assyrian  chose  to  have  substantial  proof  of 
this  parental  suzerainty.  The  great  king  therefore 
summoned  the  poor  subject-potentate  to  Damascus, 
where  he  was  holding  his  victorious  court. 

So  far  Ahaz  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  his 
"  dreadful  patron " ;  and  if  he  had  returned  when  he 
paid  his  homage,  no  immediate  harm  would  have 
happened.  But  during  his  visit  he  saw  "  the  altar " 
{Heb.)  at  the  conquered  city.  Was  it  the  altar  of  the 
defeated  Syrian  god  Rimmon  ?  or  did  the  Assyrian 
persuade  his  willing  vassal  to  sacrifice  at  the  portable 
altar  of  his  god  Assur  ?  We  may,  perhaps,  infer  the 
former  from  2  Chron.  xxviii.  23,  where  Ahaz  says : 
"  Because  the  gods  of  the  kings  of  Syria  help  them, 
therefore  will  I  sacrifice  to  them,  that  they  may  help 
me."  There  is  room  to  suspect  some  error  here, 
because  Rezin  had  fallen,  and  Damascus  was  in  ruins, 
and  Rimmon  had  conspicuously  failed  to  help  or  to 
avenge  his  votaries.^  Ahaz  admired  the  altar,  to  what- 
ever god  it  had  been  erected ;  and  unmindful,  or 
perhaps  unconscious,  that  the  altar  of  the  Temple  of 
Jerusalem  was  declared  in  the  Pentateuch  to  have  been 
divinely  ordained — a  fact  to  which  the  historian  does  not 
himself  refer — he  sent  to  the  head  priest  Urijah  a  pattern 
of  the  altar  which  had  struck  his  fancy  at  Damascus. 
The  subservient  priest,  without  a  murmur  or  a  remon- 
strance, undertook  to  have  a  similar  altar  ready  for 
Ahaz  in  the  Temple  by  the  time  of  his  return — a  crime, 
if  crime  it  were,  which  the  Chronicler  conceals.    **  Never 


'  The  remark  may  refer  to  some  earlier  period  in  the  reign  of  Ahaz, 
before  the  capture  of  Damascus.  It  is  more  probable  that  the  altar 
was  used  for  some  Assyrian  deity,  and  the  adoption  of  it  may  have 
flattered  Tiglath-Pileser. 


xvi.  i-i8.]  THE  APOSTASIES   OF  AHAZ  281 

any  prince  was  so  foully  idolatrous,"  says  Bishop  Hall, 
"as  that  he  wanted  a  priest  to  second  him.  A  Urijah 
is  fit  to  humour  an  Ahaz.^  Greatness  could  never 
command  anything  which  some  servile  wits  were  not 
ready  both  to  applaud  and  justify."  Certainly  we 
should  have  hoped  for  more,  fidelity  to  ancient  tradition 
from  a  man  who  earned  the  approving  word  of  Isaiah  ; 
but  it  is  only  fair  and  just  to  admit  that  Urijah,  in  the 
universal  ignorance  which  prevailed  about  the  codes 
which  were  afterwards  collected  and  published  as  the 
total  legislation  of  the  wilderness,  may  have  viewed  his 
obedience  to  the  king's  commands  with  very  different 
eyes  from  those  by  which  it  was  regarded  in  the  sixth 
and  fifth  centuries  before  Christ.  He  may  have  been 
frankly  unaware  that  he  was  guilty  of  an  act  which 
would  afterwards  be  denounced  as  an  apostatising 
enormity.^ 

When  Ahaz  returned,  he  was  so  much  pleased  with 
his  new  plaything  that  he  at  once  acted  as  priest  at 
his  own  new  altar.     Without  the  least  opposition  from 


'  2  Kings  xvi.  11,  which  records  the  zealous  subservience  of  Urijah, 
is  wanting  in  some  MSS.  of  the  LXX.  But  that  the  altar  was  made, 
and  without  his  opposition,  is  clear  from  the  narrative.  Asa  (2  Chron. 
XV.  8)  had  repaired  Solomon's  great  altar;  Hezekiah  subsequently 
cleansed  it  {id.  xxix.  18);  Manasseh  rebuilt  it  {Qn).  The  brass  of 
it  ultimately  went  to  Babylon  (Jer.  Hi.  17-20). 

"  Bahr  says  :  "  It  seems  that  Urijah,  like  his  companion,  was  only 
anxious  for  his  revenues.  At  any  rate,  his  conduct  is  a  sign  of  the 
character  and  standing  of  the  priests  of  that  time.  They  were 
'dumb  dogs  who  could  not  bark.'  They  all  followed  their  own  ways, 
every  one  for  his  own  gain  "  (Isa.  Ivi.  10,  11).  "  We  have  in  this  high 
priest,"  says  the  Wiirtemberg  Sutnmary,  "a  specimen  of  those  hypo- 
crites and  belly-servants  who  say,  '  Whose  bread  I  eat,  his  song 
I  sing';  who  veer  about  with  the  wind,  and  seek  to  be  pleasant  to 
all  men  ;  who  wish  to  hurt  no  one's  feelings,  but  teach  just  what  any 
one  wants  to  hear." 


282  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

the  priests — who  had  so  sternly  resisted  Uzziab^^ — he 
offered  burnt-offerings  and  meat-offerings  and  drink- 
offerings,  and  sprinkled  the  blood  of  peace-offerings 
on  his  altar. -^  Not  content  with  this,  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  order  the  removal  of  the  huge  brazen  altar  from 
the  position,  in  front  of  the  Temple  porch,  which  it  had 
held  since  the  days  of  Solomon.  He  did  this  in  order 
that  his  own  favourite  altar  might  be  in  the  line  of 
vision  from  the  court,  and  not  be  overshadowed  by 
the  old  one,  which  he  shifted  from  the  place  of  honour 
to  the  north  side.  He  proceeded  to  call  his  own  altar 
"the  great  altar,"  and  ordered  that  the  morning  burnt- 
offering,  and  the  evening  minchah,  and  all  the  principal 
sacrifices  should  henceforth  be  offered  upon  it.-  He 
did  not  wholly  supersede  the  old  brazen  altar,  which, 
he  said,  "  shall  be  for  me  to  inquire  by,"  or,  as  the 
Hebrew  may  perhaps  mean,  "  it  should  await " — i.e.y 
"  I  will  hereafter  consider  what  to  do  with  it." 

Ahaz  is  charged  with  the  additional  crime  of  removing 
the  ornamental  festoons  of  bronze  pomegranates  from 
the  lavers,  and  the  brazen  oxen  from  under  the  molten 
sea,  which  henceforth  lay  dishonoured,  without  its 
proper  and  splendid  supports,  on  the  pavement  of  the 


'  I  Kings  viii.  64;  2  Chron.  iv.  I.  In  this  and  similar  instances 
commentators,  biassed  by  a  priori  considerations,  have  imagined  that 
Ahaz  did  not  in  person  offer  sacrifices.  But  this  is  what  the  text 
says,  and  it  was  the  custom  of  kings  to  regard  themselves  as  invested 
with  Divine  attributes.  Ahaz  may  have  had  this  lesson  impressed 
on  his  mind  by  his  visit  to  Tiglath-Pileser.  See  Gratz,  Gesch.  der 
Juden.,  ii.  150.  Layard,  Nin.  and  Bob.,  472  ff.,  gives  us  pictures 
of  Assyrian  kings  ministering  at  their  altars,  which  are  of  various 
shapes. 

'  2  Kings  xvi.  15.  Vulg.,  paratuni  erit  ad  voluntatcm  meant. 
The  LXX.  followed  another  reading :  ^Wat  /uoi  ei's  rh  wpwi.  Gratz 
(ii,  150),  for  "IpS?,  "  to  inquire,"  reads  np7  "to  draw  near  to." 


xvi.  1-18.]  THE  APOSTASIES   OF  AIIAZ  283 

court.^  He  also  took  away  the  balustrade  of  the  royal 
"  ascent "  from  the  palace  to  the  Temple,  and  made 
a  new  entrance  of  a  less  gorgeous  character  than  that 
which,  in  the  days  of  Solomon,  the  Queen  of  Sheba 
had  admired.^ 

No  doubt  these  proceedings  helped  to  heighten  the 
unpopularity  of  Ahaz.  But  what  could  he  do  ?  He 
could,  indeed,  if  he  had  had  sufficient  faith,  have 
*'  trusted  in  Jehovah,"  as  Isaiah  bade  him  do.  But 
he  was  under  the  terrific  pressure  of  hostile  circum- 
stances, and,  being  a  weak  and  timid  man,  felt  himself 
unable  to  resist  the  influence  of  the  haughty  politicians 
and  worldl}'-  priests  by  whom  he  was  surrounded — men 
who  openly  made  Isaiah  their  scoff.  When  he  invited 
the  interposition  of  Tiglath-Pileser,^  all  the  other  con- 
sequences of  humiliation  would  naturally  follow.  He 
probably  disliked  as  much  as  any  one  to  see  the  great 
molten  laver  taken  off  the  backs  of  the  oxen  which 
showed  the  skill  of  the  ancient  Hiram,  and  did  not 
admire  the  despoiled  aspect  of  the  shrine  of  his  capital. 
But  if  the  King  of  Assyria  or  his  emissaries  had  (as 
the  historian  implies)  cast  greedy  eyes  on  these  splendid 
objects  of  antiquity,  the  poor  vassal  could  not  refuse 
them.  Better,  he  may  have  thought,  that  these  material 
ornaments  should  go  to  Nineveh  than  that  he  should 

'   I  Kings  vii.  23-39. 

"^  2  Kings  xvi.  18.  The  allusions  are  obscure.  R.V.,  "  the  covered 
way";  A.V.,  "the  covert  for  the  Sabbath."  See  2  Chron.  ix.  4. 
Here  the  Hebr.  Qri  has  Mtisak,  and  the  Vulg.  Musach  Sabbati.  The 
LXX.  evidently  did  not  understand  it  (/cai  tov  Oe/jLeXiov  rrjs  Kadidpas 
<fiKo56fji.r)(T€v').  For  "covert  for  the  Sabbath,"  Geiger  suggests  "  molten 
images  for  the  Shame"  (Bosheth-Baal,  by  transposition  oi Shabbaih). 
Comp.  2  Chron.  xxviii.  2. 

^  2  Chron.  xxviii.  20 :  "  Tiglath-Pileser  came  unto  him,  and  dis- 
tressed him,  but  helped  him  not." 


284  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

be  forced  to  exact  yet  heavier  burdens  from  an  impover- 
ished people.  His  expedient  is  mentioned  among 
his  crimes,  yet  no  one  blamed  the  pious  Hezekiah 
when,  under  similar  circumstances,  he  acted  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  manner/ 

The  Chronicler  gives  a  darker  aspect  to  his  mis- 
doings by  saying  that  he  cut  to  pieces  the  vessels  of 
the  house  of  God,  and  made  him  altars  in  every  corner 
of  Jerusalem,  and  bamoth  to  burn  incense  unto  other 
gods  in  every  several  city  of  Judah.  He  says,  further, 
that  he  closed  the  great  gates  of  the  Temple  ;  put  an 
end  to  the  kindling  of  the  lamps,  the  burning  of  incense, 
and  the  daily  offerings ;  and  left  the  whole  Temple  to 
fall  into  ruin  and  neglect.^  We  know  no  more  of  him. 
He  lived  through  an  epoch  marked  by  the  final  crisis 
in  the  existence  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel.  Dark  omens 
of  every  kind  were  around  him,  and  he  seems  to  have 
been  too  frivolous  to  see  them.  If  he  plumed  himself 
on  the  removal  of  the  two  relentless  invaders  Rezin 
and  Pekah,  he  must  have  lived  to  feel  that  the  terror 
of  Assyria  had  come  appreciably  nearer.  Tiglath- 
Pileser  had  only  helped  Judah  in  furtherance  of  his 
own  designs,  and  his  exactions  came  like  a  chronic 
distress  after  the  acuter  crisis.  Nor  was  there  any 
improvement  when  he  died  in  727.  He  was  succeeded 
by  Shalmaneser  IV.,  and  Shalmaneser  IV.  by  Sargon 
in  722,  the  year  of  the  fall  of  Samaria.  We  know  no 
more  of  Ahaz.  The  historian  says  that  he  was  buried 
with  his  fathers,  and  the  Chronicler  adds,  as  in  the  case 

'  2  Kings  xviii.  15,  16. 

■"'  In  justice  to  Ahaz,  we  should  observe  that  (i)  in  every  instance 
the  later  account  multiplies  and  magnifies  and  gives  a  darker 
colouring  to  his  offences;  (2)  that  neither  Isaiah,  Micah,  nor  any 
other  prophet  has  a  word  of  reproach  for  such  enormities  in  Ahaz. 


i-i8.]  THE  APOSTASIES  OF  AHAZ  285 


of  Uzziah  and  other  kings,  that  he  was  not  permitted 
to  rest  in  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings. ^  He  had  sown 
the  wind ;  his  son  Hezekiah  had  to  reap  the  whirl- 
wind.^ 


'  It  is  a  Jewish  tradition  that  Hezekiah  would  not  bury  his  father 
Ahaz  in  a  sarcophagus,  but  on  a  bier  {Pesachin,  f.  56,  I ;  Sanhedrin, 
f.  47,  I  ;  Gratz,  Gesch.  d.Juden.,  ii.  224). 

^  His  name,  Chizqutyyah,  is  shortened  from  Yechizqinyyahoo  (Isa. 
i.  I  ;  2  Kings  xx,  10;  Hos.  i.  i).  It  means  "Jehovah's  strength" 
(^Gesen.),  or  "Yah  is  might "  (^Fiirst). 


Probable  Dates. 

B-X. 

745.  Accession  of  Tiglath-Pileser. 

746.  Death  of  Uzziah.     Accession  of  Jotham.     First  vision 

of  Isaiah  (Isa.  vi,). 

735.     Accession  of  Ahaz.     Syro-Ephraimitish  war, 

734-732.  Siege  and  capture  of  Damascus,  and  ravage  of 
Northern  Israel  by  Tiglath-Pileser.  Visit  of  Ahaz 
to  Damascus. 

727.     Accession  of  Shalmaneser  IV. 

722.  Accession  of  Sargon.  Capture  of  Samaria,  and  cap- 
tivity of  the  Ten  Tribes. 

720.     Defeat  of  Sabaco  by  Sargon  at  Raphia. 

715(7).     Accession  of  Hezekiah. 

711.     Sargon  captures  Ashdod. 

707.  Sargon  defeats  Merodach-Baladan,  and  captures 
Babylon. 

705.     Murder  of  Sargon.     Accession  of  Sennacherib. 

701.  Sennacherib  besieges  Ekron.  Defeats  Egypt  at  Altaqu. 
Invades  Judah,  and  spares  Hezekiah.  Invades 
Egypt,  and  sends  the  Rabshakeh  to  Jerusalem. 
Disaster  of  Assyrians  at  Pelusium,  and  dis- 
appearance from  before  Jerusalem. 

697.     Death  of  Hezekiah.     Accession  of  Manasseh. 

681.     Death  of  Sennacherib. 

608.     Battle  of  Megiddo.     Death  of  Josiah. 

607.     Fall  of  Nineveh  and  Assyria.     Triumph  of  Babylon. 

605.  Battle  of  Carchemish.  Defeat  of  Pharaoh  Necho  by 
Nebuchadrezzar. 

599.  First  deportation  of  Jews  to  Babylon  by  Nebuchad- 
rezzar. 

588.     Destruction  of  Jerusalem.     Second  deportation. 

538.     Cyrus  captures  Babylon. 

536.  Decree  of  Cyrus.  Return  of  Zerubbabel  and  the  first 
Jewish  exiles. 

458.     Return  of  Ezra. 

286 


CHAPTER   XXV 

HEZEKIAH 
B.C.  715-686  ' 

2  Kings  xviii 

"For  Ezekias  had  done  the  thing  that  pleased  the  Lord,  and  was 
strong  in  the  ways  of  David  his  father,  as  Esay  the  prophet,  who 
was  great  and  faithful  in  his  vision,  had  commanded  him." — Ecclus. 
xlviii.  22. 

THE  reign  of  Hezekiah  was  epoch-making  in  many 
respects,  but  especially  for  its  religious  reforma- 
tion, and  the  relations  of  Judah  with  Assyria  and  with 
Babylon.  It  is  also  most  closely  interwoven  with  the 
annals  of  Hebrew  prophecy,  and  acquires  unwonted 
lustre  from  the  magnificent  activity  and  impassioned 
eloquence  of  the  great  prophet  Isaiah,  who  merits  in 
many  ways  the  title  of  "  the  Evangelical  Prophet,"  and 
who  was  the  greatest  of  the  prophets  of  the  Old 
Dispensation. 

According  to  the  notice  in  2  Kings  xviii.  2,  Hezekiah 
was  twenty-five  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign  in 
the  third  year  of  Hoshea  of  Israel.  This,  however, 
is  practically  impossible  consistently  with  the  dates 
that  Ahaz  reigned  sixteen  years  and  became  king  at 
the  age  of  twenty,  for  it  would  then  follow  that 
Hezekiah  was  born  when  his  father  was  a  mere  boy — 

'  The  first  of  these  dates  is  highly  uncertain,  as  is  the  entire 
chronologj'  of  this  reign.     I  follow  Kittel. 

287 


288  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


and  this,  although  Hezekiah  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  the  eldest  son  ;  for  Ahaz  had  burnt  "  his  son," 
and,  according  to  the  Chronicler,  more  than  one  son, 
to  propitiate  Moloch.  Probably  Hezekiah  was  a  boy  of 
fifteen  when  he  began  to  reign.  The  chronology  of  his 
reign  of  twenty-nine  years  is,  unhappily,  much  confused. 
The  historian  of  the  Kings  agrees  with  the  Chronicler, 
and  the  son  of  Sirach,  in  pronouncing  upon  him  a  high 
eulogy,  and  making  him  equal  even  to  David  in  faith- 
fulness. There  is,  however,  much  difference  in  the 
method  of  their  descriptions  of  his  doings.  The  his- 
torian devotes  but  one  verse  to  his  reformation — which 
probably  began  early  in  his  reign,  though  it  occupied 
many  years.  The  Chronicler,  on  the  other  hand,  in 
his  three  chapters  manages  to  overlook,  if  not  to 
suppress,  the  one  incident  of  the  reformation  which 
is  of  the  deepest  interest.  It  is  exactly  one  of  those 
suppressions  which  help  to  create  the  deep  misgiving 
as  to  the  historic  exactness  of  this  biassed  and  late 
historian.  It  must  be  regarded  as  doubtful  whether 
many  of  the  Levitic  details  in  which  he  revels  are  or 
are  not  intended  to  be  literally  historic.  Imaginative 
additions  to  literal  history  became  common  among  the 
Jews  after  the  Exile,  and  leaders  of  that  day  instinc- 
tively drew  the  line  between  moral  homiletics  and 
literal  history.  It  may  be  perfectly  historical  that,  as 
the  Chronicler  says,  Hezekiah  opened  and  repaired  the 
Temple  ;  gathered  the  priests  and  the  Levites  together, 
and  made  them  cleanse  themselves ;  offered  a  solemn 
sacrifice ;  reappointed  the  musical  services ;  and — 
though  this  can  hardly  have  been  till  after  the  Fall  of 
Samaria  in  722 — invited  all  the  Israelites  to  a  solemn, 
but  in  some  respects  irregular,  passover  of  fourteen 
days.       It   may  be   true   also  that  he  broke   up   the 


xviii.]  HEZEKIAH  289 


idolatrous  altars  in  Jerusalem,  and  tossed  their  debris 
into  the  Kidron  ;  and  (again  after  the  deportation  of 
Israel)  destroyed  some  of  the  hamoth  in  Israel  as  well 
as  in  Judah.  If  he  reinstituted  the  courses  of  the 
priests,  the  collection  of  tithes,  and  all  else  that  he  is 
said  to  have  done,^  he  accomplished  quite  as  much  as 
was  effected  in  the  reign  of  his  great-grandson  Josiah, 
But  while  the  Chronicler  dwells  on  all  this  at  such 
length,  what  induces  him  to  omit  the  most  significant 
fact  of  all — the  destruction  of  the  brazen  serpent  ? 

The  historian  tells  us  that  Hezekiah  "  removed  the 
bamoth  " — the  chapels  on  the  high  places,  with  their 
ephods  and  teraphim — whether  dedicated  to  the  worship 
of  Jehovah  or  profaned  by  alien  idolatry.  That  he  did, 
or  attempted,  something  of  this  kind  seems  certain  ;  for 
the  Rabshakeh,  if  we  regard  his  speech  as  historical 
in  its  details,  actually  taunted  him  with  impiety,  and 
threatened  him  with  the  wrath  of  Jehovah  on  this  very 
account.  Yet  here  we  are  at  once  met  with  the  many 
difficulties  with  which  the  history  of  Israel  abounds, 
and  which  remind  us  at  every  turn  that  we  know  much 
less  about  the  inner  life  and  religious  conditions  of  the 
Hebrews  than  we  might  infer  from  a  superficial  study 
of  the  historians  who  wrote  so  many  centuries  after  the 
events  which  they  describe.  Over  and  over  again  their 
incidental  notices  reveal  a  condition  of  society  and 
worship  which  violently  collides  with  what  seems  to 
be  their  general  estimate.  Who,  for  instance,  would 
not  infer  from  this  notice  that  in  Judah,  at  any  rate, 
the  king's  suppression  of  the  "high  places,"  and  above 
all  of  those  which  were  idolatrous,  had  been  tolerably 
thorough  ?     How  much,   then,  are  we  amazed  to  find 


2  Chron.  xxxi.  2-21. 

19 


290  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


that  Hezekiah  had  not  effectually  desecrated  even  the 
old  shrines  which  Solomon  had  erected  to  Ashtoreth, 
Chemosh,  and  Milcom  ^  "  at  the  right  hand  of  the  mount 
of  corruption  " — in  other  words,  on  one  of  the  peaks 
of  the  Mount  of  Olives,  in  full  view  of  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem  and  of  the  Temple  Hill  ! 

"And  he  brake  the  images,"  or,  as  the  R.V.  more 
correctly  renders  it,  "  the  pillars,"  the  matstseboth. 
Originally — that  is,  before  the  appearance  of  the  Deuter- 
onomic  and  the  Priestly  Codes — no  objection  seems  to 
have  been  felt  to  the  erection  of  a  matstsebah.  Jacob 
erected  one  of  these  baitulia  or  anointed  stones  at 
Bethel,  with  every  sign  of  Divine  approval.^  Moses 
erected  twelve  round  his  altar  at  Sinai. ^  Joshua  erected 
them  in  Shechem  and  on  Mount  Ebal.  Hosea,  in  one 
passage  (iii.  4),  seems  to  mention  pillars,  ephods,  and 
teraphim  as  legitimate  objects  of  desire.  Whether  they 
have  any  relation  to  obelisks,  and  what  is  their  exact 
significance,  is  uncertain  ;  but  they  had  become  objects 
of  just  suspicion  in  the  universal  tendency  to  idolatry, 
and  in  the  deepening  conviction  that  the  second  com- 
mandment required  a  far  more  rigid  adherence  than  it 
had  hitherto  received. 

"And  cut  down  the  groves  " — or  rather  the  Asherim, 
the  wooden,  and  probably  in  some  instances  phallic, 
emblems  of  the  nature-goddess  Asherah,  the  goddess  of 
fertility.*      She    is    sometimes  identified  with  Astarte, 

*  Josiah  did  this  many  years  later  (2  Kings  xxiii.  13). 

-Gen.  XXXV.  14.  See  Spencer,  De  legg.  Hebr.,  i.  444;  Bochart, 
Canaan,  ii.  2. 

*  Exod.  xxiv,  4.  Comp.  Deut.  vii.  5,  xii,  3,  xvi.  22;  Lev.  xxvi.  I ; 
2  Chron.  xiv,  3,  xxxi.  1 ;  Jer.  xliii.  13;  Hos.  x.  2;  Mic.  v.  13  (where 
the  A.V.  often  has  "  statue  "  or  "  image  ").  Comp.  Clem.  Alex.,  Strom., 
i.  24 ;  Arnob.,  c.  Gent.,  i.  39. 

''  The  rendering  "  grove  "  in  the  A.V.  is  borrowed  from  the  d^(7■or 


xviii.]  HEZEKIAH  291 

the  goddess  of  the  moon  and  of  love  ;  but  there  is  no 
sufficient  ground  for  the  identification.  Some,  indeed, 
doubt  whether  Asherah  is  the  name  of  a  goddess  at  all. 
They  suppose  that  the  word  only  means  a  consecrated 
pole  or  pillar,  emblematic  of  the  sacred  tree.^ 

Then  comes  the  startling  g,ddition,  "And  brake  in 
pieces  the  brazen  serpent  that  Moses  had  made  :  for 
unto  those  days  the  children  of  Israel  did  bum  incense  to 
it."  This  addition  is  all  the  more  singular  because  the 
Hebrew  tense  implies  habitual  worship.  The  story  of 
the  brazen  serpent  of  the  wilderness  is  told  in  Num. 
xxi.  9  ;  but  not  an  allusion  to  it  occurs  anywhere,  till 
now— some  eight  centuries  later — we  are  told  that  up 
to  this  time  the  children  of  Israel  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  burning  incense  to  it !  Comparing  Num.  xxi.  4, 
with  xxxiii.  42,  we  find  that  the  scene  of  the  serpent- 
plague  of  the  Exodus  was  either  Zalmonah  ("  the  place 
of  the  image  ")  or  Punon,  which  Bochart  connects  with 
Phainoi,  a  place  mentioned  as  famous  for  copper-mines.^ 
Moses,  for  unknown  reasons,  chose  it  as  an  innocent 
and  potent  symbol ;  but  obviously  in  later  days  it 
subserved,  or  was  mingled  with,  the  tendency  to 
ophiolatry,  which  has  been  fatally  common  in  all  ages 

of  the  LXX.,  and  the  lucus  of  the  Vulgate.  On  the  connection  of 
the  Asherah  with  the  sacred  tree  of  the  Assyrian,  see  my  article  on 
"  Grove  "  in  Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible ;  and  Fergusson,  Nineveh  and 
Persepolis  Restored,  299-304.  On  the  worship  of  Asherah,  see  i  Kings 
XV.  13;  2  Kings  xxi.  3-7,  xxiii.  4;  2  Chron.  xv.  16;  Judg.  iii.  5-7, 
vi.  25,  xviii.  18.  Baudissin  in  Hersog  Realencykl.,  s.v.  We  may  well 
be  startled  by  the  prevalence  of  idolatry  in  Jerusalem  revealed  in 
Isa.  x.  II,  xxvii.  9,  xxix,  11,  xxx.  9,  22,  etc. 

'  See  Wellhausen,  Hist.,  235 ;  Stade,  Gesch.  d.  V.  I.,  460 ;  W.  R. 
Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  171  ;  Cheyne,  Isaiah,  ii.  303  ;  Renan, 
Hist,  du  Peuple  d'lsrael,  i.  230  (Prof.  Driver,  Bibl.  Diet,,  i.  258,  2nd 
edition). 

^  Hierosoicon,  ii.  3,  §  13, 


292  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


in  many  heathen  lands.  It  is  indeed  most  difficult  to 
understand  a  state  of  things  in  which  the  children  of 
Israel  habitually  burned  incense  to  this  venerable  relic, 
nor  can  we  imagine  that  this  was  done  without  the 
cognisance  and  connivance  of  the  priests.  Ewald 
makes  the  conjecture  that  the  brazen  Saraph  had  been 
left  at  Zalmonah,  and  was  an  occasional  object  of 
Israelite  adoration  in  pilgrimage  for  the  purpose.  There 
is,  however,  nothing  more  extraordinary  in  the  preva- 
lence of  serpent-worship  among  the  Jews  than  in  the 
fact  that,  *'  in  the  cities  of  Judah  and  the  streets  of 
Jerusalem,  we  "  (the  Jews),  "  and  our  fathers,  our  kings, 
and  our  princes,  burnt  incense  unto  the  Queen  of 
Heaven."  ^  If  this  were  the  case,  the  serpent  may 
have  been  brought  to  Jerusalem  in  the  idolatrous  reign 
of  Ahaz.  It  shows  an  intensity  of  reforming  zeal,  and 
an  inspired  insight  into  the  reality  of  things,  that 
Hezekiah  should  not  have  hesitated  to  smash  to  pieces 
so  interesting  a  relic  of  the  oldest  history  of  his  people, 
rather  than  see  it  abused  to  idolatrous  purposes.^ 
Certainly,  in  conduct  so  heroic,  and  hatred  of  idolatry 
so  strong,  the  Puritans  might  well  find  sufficient 
authority  for  removing  from  Westminster  Abbey  the 
images  of  the  Virgin,  which,  in  their  opinion,  had 
been  worshipped,  and  before  which  lamps  had  been 
perpetually  burned.  If  we  can  imagine  an  English 
king  breaking  to  pieces  the  shrine  of  the  Confessor  in 
the  Abbey,   or  a  French  king  destroying   the    sacred 


'  Jer.  xliv.  17.  In  the  collection  of  antiquities  of  Baron  Ustinoff  at 
Jaffa  are  five  or  six  dragon-headed  serpents,  with  ears  of  copper  and 
hollow  inside.  They  are  ancient,  and  were  perhaps  used  as  talismanic 
copies  of  Nehushtan. 

-  If  this  was  a  genuine  relic,  it  must  have  been  ncarlj?  eight 
hundred  years  old.     It  is  never  mentioned  elsewhere. 


xviii.l  HEZEKIAH  293 

ampulla  of  Rheims  or  the  goupillon  of  St.  Eligius,  on 
the  ground  that  many  regarded  them  with  superstitious 
reverence,  we  may  measure  the  effect  produced  by  this 
startling  act  of  Puritan  zeal  on  the  part  of  Hezekiah. 

"  And  he  called  it  Nehushtan.''  If  this  rendering — 
in  which  our  A.V.  and  R.V.  follow  the  LXX.  and  the 
Vulgate — be  correct,  Hezekiah  justified  the  iconoclasm 
by  a  brilliant  play  of  words. ^  The  Hebrew  words  for 
"  a  serpent "  {nachasK)  and  for  brass  {nechoshetJi)  are 
closely  akin  to  each  other  ;  and  the  king  showed  his 
just  estimate  of  the  relic  which  had  been  so  shamefully 
abused  by  contemptuously  designating  it — as  it  was  in 
itself  and  apart  from  its  sacred  historic  associations — 
**  nehushtan,"  a  thing  of  brass.  The  rendering,  how- 
ever, is  uncertain,  for  the  phrase  may  be  impersonal — 
"  one  "  or  "  they  "  called  it  Nehushtan  ^ — in  which  case 
the  assonance  had  lost  any  ironic  connotation.^ 

For  this  act  of  purity  of  worship,  and  for  other 
reasons,  the  historian  calls  Hezekiah  the  best  of  all  the 
kings  of  Judah,  superior  alike  to  all  his  predecessors 
and  all  his  successors.     He  regarded  him  as  coming  up 

■  |ri&'n3j  "  a  brazen  thing."  The  king  certainly  showed  a  horror 
of  sacerdotal  imposture  and  religious  materialism.  Yet  Renan  argues, 
from  Isa.  x.  11,  xxvii.  9,  xxk.  9,  22,  that  he  must  have  had  a  certain 
amount  of  tolerance.     See  Hist,  du  Peuple  d' Israel,  iii.  30. 

'  2  Kings  xviii.  4.  Vayyikra  is  like  the  English  indefinite  plural. 
The  impersonal  rendering  (as  in  other  passages)  is  adopted  in  the 
Targum  of  Jonathan,  the  feshito,  etc.,  and  by  Luther,  Bunsen,  Ewald, 
and  most  moderns. 

■'  This  relic  is  still  shown  in  the  Church  of  St.  Ambrose  at  Milan, 
It  used  to  be  the  popular  notion  that  it  would  hiss  at  the  end  of  the 
world.  The  history  of  the  Milan  "relic"  is  that  a  Milanese  envoy 
to  the  court  of  the  Emperor  John  Zimisces  at  Constantinople  chose  it 
from  the  imperial  treasures,  being  assured  that  it  was  made  of  the 
same  metal  that  Hezekiah  had  broken  up  (Sigonius,  Hist.  Regn. 
Ital.,  vii.).  It  is  probably  a  symbol  used  by  some  ophite  sect.  See 
Dean  Plumptre,  Diet,  of  Bibl,,  s.v.  "Serpent." 


294  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

to  the  Deuteronomic  ideal,  and  says  that  therefore  "  the 
Lord  was  with  him,  and  he  prospered  whithersoever  he 
went  forth." 

The  date  of  this  great  reformation  is  rendered  un- 
certain by  the  impossibihty  of  ascertaining  the  exact 
order  of  Isaiah's  prophecies.  The  most  probable  view 
is  that  it  was  gradual,  and  some  of  the  king's  most 
effective  measures  may  not  have  been  carried  out  till 
after  the  deliverance  from  Assyria.  It  is  clear,  how- 
ever, that  the  wisdom  of  Hezekiah  and  his  counsellors 
began  from  the  first  to  uplift  Judah  from  the  degradation 
and  decrepitude  to  v/hich  it  had  sunk  under  the  reign 
of  Ahaz.  The  boy-king  found  a  wretched  state  of 
affairs  at  his  accession.  His  father  had  bequeathed 
to  him  "  an  empty  treasury,  a  ruined  peasantry,  an 
unprotected  frontier,  and  a  shattered  army " ;  ^  but 
although  he  was  still  the  vassal  of  Assyria,  he  reverted 
to  the  ideas  of  his  great-grandfather  Uzziah.  He 
strengthened  the  city,  and  enabled  it  to  stand  a  siege 
by  improving  the  water-supply.  Of  these  labours  we 
have,  in  all  probability,  a  most  interesting  confirmation 
in  the  inscription  by  Hezekiah's  engineers,  discovered 
in  1880,  on  the  rocky  walls  of  the  subterranean  tunnel 
(siloh)  between  the  spring  of  Gihon  and  the  Pool  of 
Siloam.^     He    encouraged    agriculture,  the    storage   of 

'  2  Kings  xvi.  8;  Driver,  Isaiah,  68. 

^  The  diverting  of  the  water-courses  enabled  him  to  bring  the 
water  into  the  city  by  a  subterranean  tunnel.  The  Saracens  took  a 
similar  precaution  (Gul.  Tyr.,  viii.  7).  See  Appendix  II.,  where  the 
inscription  is  given ;  and  compare  2  Chron.  xxxii.  30.  Apparently 
it  carried  the  water  of  Gihon  to  the  south-east  gate,  where  were  the 
king's  gardens.  Ecclus.  xlviii.  17:  "  Ezekias  fortified  his  city,  and 
brought  in  water  into  the  midst  thereof:  he  digged  the  hard  rock 
with  iron,  and  made  wells  for  water."  For  "water"  the  MSS.  read 
"  Gog,"  a  corruption  probably  for  ayttyybv,  "  a  conduit "  (Geiger)  or 
"  Gihon  "  (Fritzsche). 


xviii.]  HEZEKIAH  295 

produce,  and  the  proper  tendance  of  flocks  and  herds, 
so  that  he  acquired  wealth  which  dimly  reminded  men 
of  the  days  of  Solomon. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  he  early  meditated  revolt 
from  Assyria ;  for  renewed  faithfulness  to  Jehovah  had 
elevated  the  moral  tone,  and  therefore  the  courage  and 
hopefulness,  of  the  whole  people.  The  Forty-Sixth 
Psalm,  whatever  may  be  its  date,  expresses  the  invin- 
cible spirit  of  a  nation  which  in  its  penitence  and  self- 
purification  began  to  feel  itself  irresistible,  and  could 
sing : — 

"  God  is  our  hope  and  strength, 
A  very  present  help  in  trouble. 

Therefore  will  we  not  fear,  though  the  earth  be  moved, 
Though  the  hills  be  carried  into  the  midst  of  the  sea. 
There  is  a  river,  the  streams  whereof  make  glad  the  city  of  God, 
The  Holy  City  where  dwells  the  Most  High. 
God  is  in  the  midst  of  her ;  therefore  shall  she  not  be  shaken  : 
God  shall  help  her,  and  that  right  early. 
Heathens  raged  and  kingdoms  trembled  : 
He  lifted  His  voice — the  earth  melted  away. 
Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  with  us ; 
Elohim  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge."  ' 

It  was  no  doubt  the  spirit  of  renewed  confidence 
which  led  Hezekiah  to  undertake  his  one  military 
enterprise — the  chastisement  of  the  long-troublesome 
Philistines.  He  was  entirely  successful.  He  not  only 
won  back  the  cities  which  his  father  had  lost,^  but 
he  also  dispossessed  them  of  their  own  cities,  even 
unto  Gaza,  which  was  their  southernmost  posses-sion — 
"  from  the  tower  of  the  watchman  to  the  fenced  city."^ 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  act  involved  an  almost 

'  Psalm  xlvi.  l-li. 
'■'  2  Chron.  xxviii.  18. 

*  2  Kings  xviii.  8  :  comp.  xvii.  9.  Josephus  says  that  he  failed  to 
take  Gath  {Antt.,  IX.  xiii.  3). 


296  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

open  defiance  of  the  Assyrian  King ;  but  if  Hezekiah 
dreamed  of  independence,  it  was  essential  for  him  to  be 
free  from  the  raids  and  the  menace  of  a  neighbour  so 
dangerous  as  Phihstia,  and  so  inveterately  hostile.  It 
is  not  improbable  that  he  may  have  devoted  to  this  war 
the  money  which  would  otherwise  have  gone  to  pay 
the  tribute  to  Shalmaneser  or  Sargon,  which  had  been 
continued  since  the  date  of  the  appeal  of  Ahaz  to 
Tiglath-Pileser  II.  When  Sargon  applied  for  the 
tribute  Hezekiah  refused  it,  and  even  omitted  to  send 
the  customary  present. 

It  is  clear  that  in  this  line  of  conduct  the  king 
was  following  the  exhortations  of  Isaiah.  It  showed  no 
small  firmness  of  character  that  he  was  able  to  choose 
a  decided  course  amid  the  chaos  of  contending  counsels. 
Nothing  but  a  most  heroic  courage  could  have  enabled 
him,  at  any  period  of  his  reign,  to  defy  that  dark  cloud 
of  Assyrian  war  which  ever  loomed  on  the  horizon,  and 
from  which  but  little  sufficed  to  elicit  the  destructive 
lightning-flash. 

There  were  three  permanent  parties  in  the  Court  of 
Hezekiah,  each  incessantly  trying  to  sway  the  king  to 
its  own  counsels,  and  each  representing  those  counsels 
as  indispensable  to  the  happiness,  and  even  to  the 
existence,  of  the  State. 

I.  There  was  the  Assyrian  party,  urging  with  natural 
vehemence  that  the  fierce  northern  king  was  as  irresist- 
ible in  power  as  he  was  terrible  in  vengeance.  The 
fearful  cruelties  which  had  been  committed  at  Beth- 
Arbel,  the  devastation  and  misery  of  the  Trans- Jordanic 
tribes,  the  obliteration  and  deportation  of  the  heavily 
afflicted  districts  of  Zebulon,  Naphtali,  and  the  way 
of  the  sea  in  Galilee  of  the  nations,  the  already  inevit- 
able   and   imminent   destruction    of  Samaria   and   her 


xviii.]  HEZEKIAH  297 


king  and  the  whole  Northern  Kingdom,  together  with 
that  certain  deportation  of  its  inhabitants  of  which  the 
fatal  policy  had  been  established  by  Tiglath-Pileser, 
would  constitute  weighty  arguments  against  resistance. 
Such  considerations  would  appeal  powerfully  to  the 
panic  of  the  despondent  section  of  the  community,  which 
was  only  actuated,  as  most  men  are,  by  considerations 
of  ordinary  political  expediency.  The  foul  apparition 
of  the  Ninevites,  which  for  five  centuries  afflicted  the 
nations,  is  now  only  visible  to  us  in  the  bas-reliefs  and 
inscriptions  unearthed  from  their  burnt  palaces.  There 
they  live  before  us  in  their  own  sculptures,  with  their 
"  thickset,  sensual  figures,"  and  the  expression  of  calm 
and  settled  ferocity  on  their  faces,  exhibiting  a  frightful 
nonchalance  as  they  look  on  at  the  infliction  of  diaboli- 
cal atrocities  upon  their  vanquished  enemies.  But  in  the 
eighth  century  before  Christ  they  were  visible  to  all  the 
eastern  world  in  the  exuberance  of  the  most  brutal 
parts  of  the  nature  of  man.  Men  had  heard  how,  a 
century  earlier,  Assurnazipal  boasted  that  he  had 
"dyed  the  mountains  of  the  Nairi  with  blood  like 
wool " ;  how  he  had  flayed  captive  kings  alive,  and 
dressed  pillars  with  their  skins  ;  how  he  had  walled 
up  others  alive,  or  impaled  them  on  stakes ;  how  he 
had  burnt  boys  and  girls  alive,  put  out  eyes,  cut  off 
hands,  feet,  ears,  and  noses,  pulled  out  the  tongues  of 
his  enemies,  and  "  at  the  command  of  Assur  his  god  " 
had  flung  their  limbs  to  vultures  and  eagles,  to  dogs 
and  bears.  The  Jews,  too,  must  have  realised  with  a 
vividness  which  is  to  us  impossible  the  cruel  nature  of 
the  usurper  Sargon.  He  is  represented  on  his  monu- 
ments as  putting  out  with  his  own  hands  the  eyes  of 
his  miserable  captives ;  while,  to  prevent  them  from 
flinching  when  the  spear  which  he  holds  in  his  hand 


298  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

is  plunged  into  their  eye-sockets,  a  hook  is  inserted 
through  their  nose  and  hps  and  held  fast  with  a  bridle. 
Can  we  not  imagine  the  pathos  with  which  this  party 
would  depict  such  horrors  to  the  tremblers  of  Judah  ? 
Would  they  not  bewail  the  fanaticism  which  led  the 
prophets  to  seduce  their  king  into  the  suicidal  policy 
of  defying  such  a  power  ?  To  these  men  the  sole  path 
of  national  safety  lay  in  continuing  to  be  quiet  vassals 
and  faithful  tributaries  of  these  destroyers  of  cities  and 
treaders-down  of  foes. 

II.  Then  there  was  the  Egyptian  party,  headed  pro- 
bably by  the  powerful  Shebna,  the  chancellor.^  His 
foreign  name,  the  fact  that  his  father  is  not  mentioned, 
and  the  question  of  Isaiah — "  What  hast  thou  here  ? 
and  whom  hast  thou  here,  that  thou  hast  hewed  thee 
out  a  sepulchre  here  ?  " — seem  to  indicate  that  he  was 
by  birth  a  foreigner,  perhaps  a  Syrian.^  The  prophet, 
indignant  at  his  powerful  interference  with  domestic 
politics,  threatens  him,  in  words  of  tremendous  energy, 
with  exile  and  degradation.''  He  lost  his  place  of 
chancellor,  and  we  next  find  him  in  the  inferior, 
though  still  honourable,  office  of  secretary  (sopher, 
2  Kings  xviii.  i8),  while  Eliakim  had  been  promoted 
to  his  vacant  place  (Isa.  xxii.  2i).  Perhaps  he  may 
have   afterwards  repented,   and    the   doom   have   been 

■  A. v.,  "treasurer"  (soken;  lit.,  "deputy"  or  "associate":  Isa, 
xxii.  15).  He  was  "over  the  household."  The  Egyptian  alliance 
had  for  Judah,  as  Renan  points  out,  some  of  the  fascination  that  a 
Russian  alliance  has  often  had  for  troubled  spirits  in  France  {Hist, 
dii  Peiiple  d' Israel,  iii.  12). 

^  Renan  says  that  he  may  have  been  a  Sebennyite,  and  his  name 
Sebent. 

'  Isa.  xxii.  17,  18  :  "Behold,  the  Lord  shall  sling  and  sling,  and  pack 
and  pack,  and  toss  and  toss  thee  away  like  a  ball  into  a  distant  land  ; 
and  there  thou  shalt  die"  (Stanley).     The  versions  vary  considerably. 


HEZEKIAH  299 


lightened.^  Circumstances  at  any  rate  reduced  him 
from  the  scornful  spirit  which  seems  to  have  marked 
his  earher  opposition  to  the  prophetic  counsels,  and 
perhaps  the  powerful  warning,  and  menace  of  Isaiah 
may  have  exercised  an  influence  on  his  mind. 

III.  The  third  party,  if  it  could  even  be  called  a  party, 
was  that  of  Isaiah  and  a  *few  of  the  faithful,  aided 
no  doubt  by  the  influence  of  the  prophecies  of  Micah. 
Their  attitude  to  both  the  other  parties  was  antagonistic. 

i.  As  regards  the  Assyrian,  they  did  not  attempt  to 
minimise  the  danger.  They  represented  the  peril  from 
the  kingdom  of  Nineveh  as  God's  appointed  scourge 
for  the  transgressions  of  Judah,  as  it  had  been  for  the 
transgressions  of  Israel. 

Thus  Micah  sees  in  imagination  the  terrible  march 
of  the  invader  by  Gath,  Akko,  Beth-le-Aphrah,  Maroth, 
Lachish,  and  Adullam.  He  plays  with  bitter  anguish 
on  the  name  of  each  town  as  an  omen  of  humiliation 
and  ruin,  and  calls  on  Zion  to  make  herself  bald  for 
the  children  of  her  delight,  and  to  enlarge  her  baldness 
as  the  vultures,  because  they  are  gone  into  captivit}'."^ 
He  turns  fiercely  on  the  greedy  grandees,  the  false 
prophets,  the  blood-stained  princes,  the  hireling 
priests,  the  bribe-taking  soothsayers,  who  were  re- 
sponsible for  the  guilt  which  should  draw  down  the 
vengeance.  He  ends  with  the  fearful  prophecy — which 
struck  a  chill  into  men's  hearts  a  century  later,  and 
had  an  important  influence  on  Jewish  history — "There- 
fore, because  of  you  shall  Zion  be  ploughed  as  a  field, 

'  Isa.  xxxvii.  2.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  there  were  not  two 
Shebnas. 

-  Mic.  i.  10-16.  See  the  writer's  Minor  Prophets  ("  Men  of  the 
Bible "  Series),  pp.  130-133,  for  an  explanation  of  this  enigmatic 
prophecy. 


300  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

and  Jerusalem  become  ruins,  and  the  hill  of  the  Temple 
as  heights  in  the  wood  "  ; — though  there  should  be  an 
ultimate  dehverance  from  Migdal-Eder,  and  a  remnant 
should  be  saved.  ^ 

Similar  to  Micah's,  and  possibly  not  uninfluenced 
by  it,  is  Isaiah's  imaginary  picture  of  the  march  of 
Assyria,  which  must  have  been  full  of  terror  to  the 
poor  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem.^ 

"  He  is  come  to  Aiath  ! 
He  is  passed  through  Migron  ! 
At  Michmash  he  layeth  up  his  baggage  : 
They  are  gone  over  the  pass  : 
'  Geba,'  they  cry,  '  is  our  lodging.' 
Ramah  trembleth  : 
Gibeah  of  Saul  is  fled  ! 

Raise  thy  shrill  cries,  O  daughter  of  Galiim  ! 
Hearken,  O  Laishah  !     Answer  her,  O  Anathoth  ! 
Madmenah  is  in  wild  flight  (?). 
The  inhabitants  of  Gebim  gather  their  stuft"  to  flee. 
This  very  day  shall  he  halt  at  Nob. 
He  shaketh  his  hand  at  the  mount  of  the  daughter  of  Zion, 
The  hill  of  Jerusalem." 

Yet  Isaiah,  and  the  little  band  of  prophets,  in  spite 
of  their  perils,  did  not  share  the  views  of  the  Assyrian 
party  or  counsel  submission.  On  the  contrary,  even 
as  they  contemplate  in  imagination  this  terrific  march 
of  Sargon,  they  threaten  Assyria.  The  Assyrian  might 
smite  Judah,  but  God  should  smite  the  Assyrians.  He 
boasts  that  he  will  rifle  the  riches  of  the  people  as  one 
robs  the  eggs  of  a  trembling  bird,  which  does  not  dare 


'  Jer.  xxvi.  8-24.  He  tells  us  that  the  prophecy  was  delivered  in 
the  reign  of  Hezekiah.     See  my  Minor  Prophets,  pp.  123-140. 

^  Isa.  X.  28-32.  It  would  involve  a  cross-country  route  over 
several  deep  ravines — e.g.,  the  Wady  Suweinit,  near  Michmash.  In 
I  Sam.  xiv.  2,  Thenius,  for  "  Migron,"  reads  "  the  Precipice."  Some 
take  Aiath  for  Ai,  three  miles  south  of  Bethel.  Rcnan  says  {Hist,  dti 
Pciiple  d' Israel,  iii.)  :  "  Nom  d'Anathoth,  arrange  symboliquement." 


xviii.]  HEZEKIAH  301 

to  cheep  or  move  the  wing.^  But  Isaiah  tells  him 
that  he  is  but  the  axe  boasting  against  the  hewer,  and 
the  wooden  staff  lifting  itself  up  against  its  wielder. 
Burning  should  be  scattered .  over  his  glory.  The 
Lord  of  hosts  should  lop  his  boughs  with  terror,  and 
a  mighty  one  should  hew  down  the  crashing  forest  of 
his  haughty  Lebanon. 

ii.  Still  more  indignant  were  the  true  prophets 
against  those  who  trusted  in  an  alliance  with  Egypt. 
From  first  to  last  Isaiah  warned  Ahaz,  and  warned 
Hezekiah,  that  no  reliance  was  to  be  placed  on  Egyptian 
promises — that  Egypt  was  but  like  the  reed  of  his  own 
Nile.  He  mocked  the  hopes  placed  on  Egyptian  inter- 
vention as  being  no  less  sure  of  disannulment  than  a 
covenant  with  death  and  an  agreement  with  Sheol. 
This  rebellious  reliance  on  the  shadow  of  Egypt  was 
but  the  weaving  of  an  unrighteous  web,  and  the  adding 
of  sin  to  sin.  It  should  lead  to  nothing  but  shame 
and  confusion,  and  the  Jewish  ambassadors  to  Zoan 
and  Egypt  should  only  have  to  blush  for  a  people 
that  could  neither  help  nor  profit.  And  then  brand- 
ing Egypt  with  the  old  insulting  name  of  Rahab,  or 
"  Blusterer,"  he  says, — 

"  Egypt  helpeth  in  vain,  and  to  no  purpose. 
Therefore  have  I  called  her  '  Rahab,  that  sitteth  still.'  " 

Indolent  braggart — that  was  the  only  designation  which 
she  deserved  !  Intrigue  and  braggadocio — smoke  and 
lukewarm  water, — this  was  all  which  could  be  expected 
from  her  1"^ 


'  Isa.  X.  14.  The  metaphor  of  a  bird's  nest  occurs  more  than  once 
in  the  boastful  Assyrian  records. 

•^  Isa.  XXX.  1-7.  Rahab  means  "  fierceness,"  "insolence,"  For  the 
various  uses  of  the  word,  see  Job  xxvi.  12;  Isa.  li.  9,  lO,  15; 
Psalm  Ixxxix.  9,  10,  Ixxxvii.  4,  5. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


Such  teaching  was  eminently  distasteful  to  the 
worldly  politicians,  who  regarded  faith  in  Jehovah's 
intervention  as  no  better  than  ridiculous  fanaticism, 
and  forgot  God's  wisdom  in  the  inflated  self-satisfaction 
of  their  own.  The  priests — luxurious,  drunken,  scorn- 
ful— were  naturally  with  them.  Men  were  fine  and 
stylish,  and  in  their  religious  criticisms  could  not 
express  too  lofty  a  contempt  for  any  one  who,  like 
Isaiah,  was  too  sincere  to  care  for  the  mere  polishing 
of  phrases,  and  too  much  in  earnest  to  shrink  from 
reiteration.  In  their  self-indulgent  banquets  these 
sleek,  smug  euphemists  made  themselves  very  merry 
over  Isaiah's  simplicity,  reiteration,  and  directness  of 
expression.  With  hiccoughing  insolence  they  asked 
whether  they  were  to  be  treated  like  weaned  babes ; 
and  then  wagging  their  heads,  as  their  successors  did 
at  Christ  upon  the  cross,  they  indulged  themselves  in 
a  mimicry,  which  they  regarded  as  witty,  of  Isaiah's 
style  and  manner.     With  him  they  said  it  is  all, — 

"  Tsav-la-tsav,  tsav-la-tsav, 
Quav-la-quav,  quav-la-quav, 
Z'eir  sham,  Z'eir  sham  ! " — 

which  may  be  imitated  thus  : — With  him  it  is  always 
"Bit  and  bit,  bid  and  bid,  for-bid  and  for-bid,  forbid 
and  fovbt'd,  a  lit-tle  bit  here,  a  lit-tle  bit  there."  ^ 
Monosyllable  is  heaped  on  monosyllable ;  and  no 
doubt  the  speakers  tipsily  adopted  the  tones  of  fond 
mothers  addressing  their  babes  and  weanlings.  Using 
the  Hebrew  words,  one  of  these  shameless  roysterers 
would  say,  "  Tsav-la-tsav,  tsav-la-tsav,  quav-la-quav, 
quav-la-quav,  Z'eir  sham,  Z'eir  sham, — that  is  how  that 

'  See  Dr.  S.  Cox  {Expositor,  i.  98-104)  on  Isa.  xxviii.  7-13. 


xviii.]  HEZEKIAH  303 

simpleton  Isaiah  speaks."  And  then  doubtless  a 
drunken  laugh  would  go  round  the  table,  and  half  a 
dozen  of  them  would  be  saying  thus,  *'  Tsav-Ia-tsav, 
tsav-la-fsav,"  at  once.  They  derided  Isaiah  just  as  the 
philosophers  of  Athens  derided  St.  Paul — as  a  mere  spe}^- 
niologos,  "  SL  seed-pecker  !  "  ^  or  "  picker-up  of  learning's 
crumbs."  Is  all  this  petty  rnonosyllabism  fit  teaching 
for  persons  like  us  ?  Are  we  to  be  taught  by  copy- 
books ?  Do  we  need  the  censorship  of  this  Old 
Morality  ? 

On  whom,  full  of  the  fire  of  God,  Isaiah  turned,  and 
told  these  scornful  tipsters,  who  lorded  it  over  God's 
heritage  in  Jerusalam,  that,  since  they  disdained  his 
stammerings,  God  would  teach  them  by  men  of  strange 
lips  and  alien  tongue.  They  might  mimic  the  style  of 
the  Assyrians  also  if  they  liked ;  but  they  should  fall 
backward,  and  be  broken,  and  snared,  and  taken.^ 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  struggle  of  the 
prophets  against  these  parties  was  far  more  severe  than 
we  might  suppose.  The  politicians  of  expedienc}^  had 
supporters  among  the  leading  princes.  The  priests — 
whom  the  prophets  so  constantly  and  sternly  denounce 
■ — adhered  to  them;  and,  as  usual,  the  women  were  all 
of  the  priestly  party  (comp.  Isa.  xxxii.  9-20).  The 
king,  indeed,  was  inclined  to  side  v/ith  his  prophet,  but 
the  king  was  terribly  overshadowed  by  a  powerful  and 
worldly  aristocracy,  of  which  the  influence  was  almost 
always  on  the  side  of  luxury,  idolatry,  and  oppression. 

iii.  But  what  had  Isaiah  to  offer  in  the  place  of  the 
policy  of  these  worldly  and  sacerdotal  advisers  of  the 
king  ?  It  was  the  simple  command  "  Trust  in  the  Lord." 
It  was  the  threefold  message  "  God  is   high  ;  God  is 

'  Acts  xvii.  1 8.  '^  Isa.  xxviii.  7-22, 


304  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


near ;  God  is  Love."  ^  Had  he  not  told  Ahaz  not  to  fear 
the  "  stumps  of  two  smouldering  torches,"  when  Rezin 
and  Pekah  seemed  awfully  dangerous  to  Judah  ?  So 
he  tells  them  now  that,  though  their  sins  had  necessi- 
tated the  rushing  stroke  of  Assyrian  judgment,  Zion 
should  not  be  utterly  destroyed.  In  Isaiah  "  the  calm- 
ness requisite  for  sagacity  rose  from  faith."  Mr.  Bagehot 
might  have  appealed  to  Isaiah's  whole  policy  in  illustra- 
tion of  what  he  has  so  well  described  as  the  military 
and  political  benefits  of  religion.  Monotheism  is  of 
advantage  to  men  not  only  "  by  reason  of  the  high 
concentration  of  steady  feeling  which  it  produces, 
but  also  for  the  mental  calmness  and  sagacity  which 
surely  springs  from  a  pure  and  vivid  conviction  that 
the  Lord  reigneth."  ^  Isaiah's  whole  conviction  might 
have  been  summed  up  in  the  name  of  the  king  himself: 
"  Jehovah  maketh  strong." 

King  Hezekiah,  apparently  not  a  man  of  much  per- 
sonal force,  though  of  sincere  piety,  was  naturally 
distracted  by  the  counsels  of  these  three  parties  :  and 
who  can  judge  him  severely  if,  beset  with  such  terrific 
dangers,  he  occasionally  wavered,  now  to  one  side,  now 
to  the  other  ?  On  the  whole,  it  is  clear  that  he  was 
wise  and  faithful,  and  deserves  the  high  eulogy  that 
his  faith  failed  not.  Naturally  he  had  not  within  his 
soul  that  burning  light  of  inspiration  which  made  Isaiah 
so  sure  that,  even  though  clouds  and  darkness  might 
lower  on  every  side,  God  was  an  eternal  Sun,  which 
flamed  for  ever  in  the  zenith,  even  when  not  visible 
to  any  eye  save  that  of  Faith. 


'  Professor  Smith,  Isaiah,  i.  12. 

"  Bagehot,  Physics  and  Politics,  p.  73 ;  Smith,  IsaiaJi,  109. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

HEZEKIAHS  SICKNESS,  AND    THE  EMBASSY  FROM 
BABYLON 

2  Kings  xx.  i — 19 

"  Thou  hast  loved  me  out  of  the  pit  of  nothingness." — Isa.  xxxviii.  1 7 
(A. v.,  margin). 

"See  the  shadow  of  the  dial 
In  the  lot  of  every  one 
Marks  the  passing  of  the  trial, 
Proves  the  presence  of  the  Sun." 

E.  B.  Browning. 

IN  the  chaos  of  uncertainties  which  surrounds  the 
chronolog}'  of  King  Hezekiah's  reign,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  fix  a  precise  date  to  the  sickness  which  almost 
brought  him  to  the  grave.  It  has,  however,  been  con- 
jectured by  some  Assyriologists  that  the  story  of  this 
episode  has  been  displaced,  because  it  seemed  to  break 
the  continuity  of  the  narrative  of  the  Assyrian  invasion  ; 
and  that,  though  it  is  placed  in  the  Book  of  Kings  after 
the  deliverance  from  Sennacherib,  it  really  followed  the 
earlier  incursion  of  Sargon.  This  is  rendered  more 
probable  by  Isaiah's  promise  (2  Kings  xx.  6),  "I  will 
deliver  thee  and  this  city  out  of  the  hand  of  the  King 
of  Assyria,"  and  by  the  fact  that  Hezekiah  still  pos- 
sessed such  numerous  and  splendid  treasures  to  display 
to  the  ambassadors  of  Merodach-Baladan.  This  could 
hardly  have  been  the  case  after  he  had  been  forced  to 

305  20 


306  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


pay  a  fine  to  the  King  of  Assyria  of  all  the  silver  that 
was  found  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  in  the 
treasures  of  the  king's  house,  to  cut  off  the  gold  from 
the  doors  and  pillars  of  the  Temple,  and  even  to  send 
as  captives  to  Nineveh  some  of  his  wives,  and  of  the 
eunuchs  of  his  palace.^  The  date  "  in  those  days " 
(2  Kings  XX.  i)  is  vague  and  elastic,  and  may  apply 
to  any  time  before  or  after  the  great  invasion. 

He  was  sick  unto  death.  The  only  indication  which 
we  have  of  the  nature  of  his  illness  is  that  it  took  the 
form  of  a  carbuncle  or  imposthume,'"^  which  could  be 
locally  treated,  but  which,  in  days  of  very  imperfect 
therapeutic  knowledge,  might  easily  end  in  death,  espe- 
cially if  it  were  on  the  back  of  the  neck.  The  conjecture 
of  Witsius  and  others  that  it  was  a  form  of  the  plague 
which  they  suppose  to  have  caused  the  disaster  to  the 
Assyrian  army  has  nothing  whatever  to  recommend  it. 

Seeing  the  fatal  character  of  his  illness,  Isaiah  came 
to  the  king  with  the  dark  message,  "  Set  thine  house  in 
order ;  for  thou  shalt  die,  and  not  live." 

The  message  is  interesting  as  furnishing  yet  another 
proof  that  even  the  most  positive  announcements  of  the 
prophets  were,  and  were  always  meant  to  be,  to  some 
extent  hypothetical  and  dependent  on  unexpressed 
conditions.  This  was  the  case  with  the  famous  pro- 
phecy of  Micah  that  Zion  should  be  ploughed  down  into 
a  heap  of  ruins.  It  was  never  fulfilled  ;  yet  the  prophet 
lost  none  of  his  authority,  for  it  was  well  understood 

'  One  of  the  first  to  point  out  the  necessary  rearrangement  of  the 
events  of  Hezekiah's  reign  was  Dr.  Hincks,  in  his  paper  on  "  A  Rectifi- 
cation of  Chronology  which  the  newly  discovered  Apis-steles  render 
necessary"  {Journ.  of  Sacred  Lit.,  October  1858).  See  my  article  on 
Hezekiah,  Smith,Z)«W.  of  the  Bible,  2nd  ed.,  ii.  1251. 

2  Heb.,  sh'chin;  LXX.,  HXkos ;  Vulg.,  ulcus. 


XX.  I -19.]  HEZEKIAH'S  SICKNESS  307 


that  the  doom  which  would  otherwise  have  been  carried 
out  had  been  averted  by  timely  penitence. 

But  the  message  of  Isaiah  fell  with  terrible  anguish 
on  the  heart  of  the  suffering  kiiig.  He  had  hoped  for 
a  better  fate.  Ke  had  begun  a  great  religious  reform.a- 
tion.  He  had  uplifted  his  people,  at  least  in  part,  out 
of  the  moral  slough  into  which  they  had  fallen  in  the 
days  of  his  predecessor.  He  had  inspired  into  his 
threatened  capital  something  of  his  own  faith  and 
courage.  Surely  he,  if  any  man,  might  claim  the  old 
promises  which  Jehovah  in  His  loving-kindness  and 
truth  had  sworn  to  his  father  David  and  his  father 
Abraham,  that  he  being  delivered  out  of  the  hand  of  his 
enemies  should  serve  God  without  fear,  walking  in 
holiness  and  righteousness  before  Him  all  the  days  of 
his  life.  He  was  but  a  young  man  still — perhaps  not 
yet  thirty  years  old  ;  further,  not  only  would  he  leave 
behind  him  an  unfinished  work,  but  he  was  childless,"^ 
and  therefore  it  seemed  as  if  with  him  would  end  the 
direct  line  of  the  house  of  David,  heir  to  so  many 
precious  promises.  He  has  left  us — it  is  preserved  in 
the  Book  of  Isaiah — the  poem  which  he  wrote  on  his 
recover}^,  but  which  enshrines  the  emotion  of  his 
agonising  anticipations' : — 

"  I  said,  In  the  noontide  of  my  days   I  shall  go  into  the  gates  of 
Sheol. 
I  am  deprived  of  the  residue  of  my  years. 
I  said,  I  shall  not  see  Yah,  Yah,  in  the  land  of  the  living, 
I  shall  behold  no  man  more,  when  I  am  among  them  that  cease 
to  be. 

'  The  Rabbis  even  make  his  sickness  the  punishment  for  his 
having  neglected  to  secure  an  heir.  He  pleads  that  he  foresaw  the 
wickedness  of  his  son.  Isaiah  tells  him  not  to  try  to  forestall  Gcd 
{Bcmchcih,  f.  10,  i). 

'^  Isa.  xxxviii.  10-20. 


?o8  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Mine  habitalion  is  removed,  and  is  carried  away  from  me  like  a 

shepherd's  tent. 
Like  a  weaver  I  have  rolled  up  my  life ;  he  will  cut  me  from  the 

thrum. 

Like  a  swallow  or  a  crane,  so  did  I  chatter  ; 

I  did  mourn  as  a  dove ;  mine  eyes  fail  with  looking  upward. 

O  Lord,  I  am  oppressed  ;  be  Thou  my  surety." 

We  must  remember,  as  we  contemplate  his  utter 
prostration  of  soul,  that  he  was  not  blessed,  as  we  are, 
with  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of  the  resurrection  to 
eternal  life.  All  was  dim  and  dark  to  him  in  the  shadowy 
world  oi  eidola  beyond  the  grave,  and  many  a  century 
was  to  elapse  before  Christ  brought  life  and  immor- 
tality to  light.  To  enter  Sheol  meant  to  Hezekiah  to 
pass  beyond  the  cheerful  sunshine  of  earth  and  the 
felt  presence  of  God.  No  more  worship,  no  more 
gladness  there  ! 

"  For  Sheol  cannot  praise  Thee,  Death  cannot  celebrate  Thee; 
They  that  go  down  into  the  pit  cannot  hope  for  Thy  truth." 

On  every  ground,  therefore,  the  feelings  of  Heze- 
kiah, had  he  not  been  a  worshipper  of  God,  might  have 
been  like  those  of  Mycerinus,  and,  like  that  legendary 
Egyptian  king,  he  might  have  cursed  God  before  he  died. 

"My  father  loved  injustice,  and  lived  long; 
I  loved  the  good  he  scorned  and  hated  wrong — 
The  gods  declare  my  recompense  to-day. 
1  looked  for  life  more  lasting,  rule  more  high; 
And  when  six  years  are  measured,  lo,  I  die ! 
Yet  surely,  O  my  people,  did  I  ween 
Man's  justice  from  the  all-just  gods  was  given, 
A  light  that  from  some  upper  point  did  beam, 
.Some  better  archetype  whose  seat  was  heaven : 
A  light  that,  shining  from  the  blest  abodes, 
Did  shadow  somewhat  of  the  life  of  gods." 

The  indignation  of  Mycerinus  often  finds  an  echo  on 


XX.  i-ig.]  HEZEKIAH'S  SICKNESS  309 

Pagan  tombstones,   as  in  the   famous  epitaph    on  the 
grave  of  the  girl  Procope  : — 

"  I,  Procope,  lift  up  my  hands  against  the  gods, 
Who  took  me  hence  undeserving, 
Aged  nineteen  years." 

It  was  far  otherwise  with.  Hezekiah.  There  was 
anguish  in  his  heart,  but  no  rebehion  or  defiance.  He 
wept  sore ;  he  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  and  wept ;  ^ 
but  as  he  wept  he  also  prayed,  and  said, — 

"  O  Lord,  remember  now  how  I  have  walked  before 
Thee  in  truth,  and  with  a  perfect  heart,  and  have  done 
that  which  is  good  in  Thy  sight." 

Isaiah,  after  delivering  his  dark  message,  and  doubt- 
less adding  to  it  such  words  of  human  consolation  as 
were  possible — if  under  such  circumstances  any  were 
possible — had  left  the  king's  chamber.  On  every 
ground  his  feelings  must  have  been  almost  as  over- 
whelmed with  sorrow  as  those  of  the  king.  Hezekiah 
was  personall}'^  his  friend,  and  the  hope  of  his  nation. 
Doubtless  the  prophet's  prayers  rose  as  fervently  and 
as  effectually  as  those  of  Luther,  which  snatched  his 
friend  Melanchthon  back  from  the  very  gates  of  death. 
By  the  time  that  he  had  reached  the  middle  of  the 
court,^    he    felt    borne    in   upon    him,    by    that    Divine 

'  Comp.  I  Kings  xxi.  4  (Ahab). 

^  2  Kings  :vX.  4.  The  Qrl  or  "  read  "  text  is,  as  here  rendered,  chafsee 
(comp.  1  Kings  vii.  8),  and  is  followed  by  the  LXX.  (eV  r^  ai^XfJ  r-g 
fiiari),  by  the  Vulgate  {mediant  partem  atrit),  and  by  the  A.V.  The  R.V., 
which  adopts  the  Kethib  or  written  text,  ha"u;  renders  it  "  the  middle 
part  of  the  city."  If  this  be  the  true  reading,  it  would  mean  that 
Isaiah  had  gone  some  distance  from  the  palace,  and  was  now  perhaps 
in  the  Valley  between  the  Upper  and  the  Lower  City.  But  it  seems 
not  improbable  that  (i)  "the  steps  of  Ahaz"  would  be  in  the  royal 
court,  and  (2)  the  answer  of  God,  like  the  mercy  of  Christ  to  the 
suffering,  may  have  come  promptly  as  an  echo  to  the  appealing  crj'. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


intuition  which  constituted  his  prophetic  call,  the  cer- 
tainty that  God  would  withdraw  the  immediate  doom 
which  he  had  been  commissioned  to  announce.  It  has 
been  conjectured  by  some  that  the  conviction  was 
deepened  in  his  mind  by  observing  on  the  steps  of  Ahaz 
one  of  those  remarkable  but  rare  effects  of  refraction — 
or,  as  some  have  conjectured,  of  a  solar  eclipse,  involv- 
ing an  obscuration  of  the  upper  limb  of  the  sun — which 
had  seemed  to  take  the  advancing  shadow  ten  steps 
backwards ;  and  that  this  was  to  him  a  sign  from 
heaven  of  the  promise  of  God  and  the  prolongation  of 
the  king's  life.  Awestruck  and  glad,  he  hastened  back 
into  the  presence  of  the  dying  king  with  the  life-giving 
message  that  God  had  heard  his  prayer,  and  seen  his 
tears,  and  would  add  fifteen  years  to  his  life,  and  would 
defend  him,  and  deliver  him  and  Jerusalem  out  of  the 
hand  of  the  King  of  Assyria.  And  this  should  be  the 
sign  to  him  from  Jehovah — Jehovah  would  bring  again 
the  shadow  ten  steps  up  the  stairs  of  Ahaz.  To  this 
sign — if  it  was  visible  from  the  chamber-window— -he 
called  the  attention  of  the  astonished  king.^ 

We  here  naturally  follow  the  narrative  of  Isaiah 
himself,  as  more  authoritative  than  that  of  the  historian 
of  the  Kings  as  to  details  in  which  they  differ.^  Not 
only  is  it  quite  in  accordance  with  all  that  we  know 
of  history  that  slight  variations   should   occur  in   the 


'  The  LXX.  calls  "  the  stairs  "  dfapaO/xoiis  tou  oikov  tov  Trarpds  aov, 
and  so,  too,  Josephus  {Antt.,  X.  ii.  l).  The  Targum  calls  them  "an 
hour-stone."  Symmachus  has,  crpixl/w  ttjv  (TKiav  tC)v  ypa,a/j.u>v  ij  Kari^T) 
ev  (hp6\oyl(j}  'Axd^- 

'^  It  should,  however,  be  observed  that  on  the  question  of  priority 
critics  are  divided.  Grotius,  Vitringa,  Paulus,  Drechsler,  etc.,  thought 
that  the  account  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah  is  the  original ;  De  Wette, 
Maurer,  Koster,  Winer,  Driver,  etc.,  regard  that  account  as  a  later 
abbreviation,  perhaps  from  a  common  source. 


XX.  I -1 9.]  HEZEKIAH'S  SICKNESS  311 


traditions  of  long-past  times,  but  the  text  of  the  Book 
of  Kings  suggests  some  difficulty.  There  we  read  that 
Hezekiah  asked  Isaiah  what  should  be  the  sign  of  the 
promise — not  mentioned  in  Isaiah- — that  he  should  go 
up  to  the  House  of  the  Lord  the  third  day.  Isaiah 
then  asked  him  whether  the  sign  should  be  that  the 
shadow  should  advance  ten  steps,  or  recede  ten  steps. 
But  there  is  no  interrogation  in  the  Hebrew,  which 
rather  means,  "The  shadow  hath  advanced  ten  steps 
.  .  .  if  it  shall  recede  ten  steps  ?  "  or  if  we  insert  the 
interrogation  in  the  first  clause,  "  Hath  the  shadow 
advanced  ten  steps  ?  "  ^  The  king's  natural  answer  to 
so  strange  an  alternative  would  be  that  for  the  shadow 
to  advance  ten  steps  was  nothing ;  whereas  its  retro- 
gression would  be  a  sign  indeed.  Then  Isaiah  cried 
unto  Jehovah,  and  the  shadow  went  backward.  In 
the  obvious  divergence  of  details  we  naturally  follow 
Isaiah  himself;  and  if  it  be  a  true  and  understood  rule 
of  all  theolog}'-,  ^^  Miraciila  non  sunt  miiUiplicanda  prceier 
necessitatem^^  the  miracle  in  this  case^in  the  oppor- 
tuneness of  its  occurrence,  and  the  issues  which  it. 
inspired — was  none  the  less  a  miracle  because  it  was 
carried  out  in  direct  accordance  with  God's  unseen, 
perpetual,  miraculous  Providence,  which  none  but 
unbelievers  will  nickname  Chance.  That  we  are  here 
dealing  with  an  historic  incident  is  certain ;  and  they 
who  see  and  acknowledge  God  in  all  history  find  no 
difficulty  at  all  in  seeing  His  deahngs  with  men  in 
striking  interpositions.  But  these,  by  the  analogy  of 
His  whole  Divine  economy,  would  naturally  be  carried 
out  in  accordance  with  natural  laws. 

The  words  rendered  "  the  sun-dial  of  Ahaz  "  mean 
no  more  than  "the  steps  \ma!alotK\  of  Ahaz."     Ahaz 

'  See  Professor  Lumby,  ad  loc. 


312  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


evidently  was  a  king  of  aesthetic  tastes,  who  was  fond 
of  introducing  foreign  novelties  and  curiosities  into 
Jerusalem/  Steps,  with  a  staff  on  the  top  of  them  as 
a  gnomon,  to  serve  as  sun-dials  had  been  invented 
at  Babylon,  and  Ahaz  may  probably  have  become 
acquainted  with  their  form  and  use  when  he  paid  his 
visit  to  Tiglath-Pileser  at  Damascus.  No  one  could 
blame  him — it  was  indeed  a  meritorious  act — to  intro- 
duce to  his  people  so  useful  an  invention.  The  word 
"  hour  "  first  occurs  in  Dan.  iii.  6,  and  it  was  doubtless 
from  Babylon  that  the  Hebrews  borrowed  the  division 
of  days  into  hours.  This  is  the  earliest  instance  in 
the  Bible  of  the  mention  of  any  instrument  to  measure 
time.  That  the  recession  of  the  shadow  could  be 
caused  by  refraction  is  certain,  for  it  has  been  observed 
in  modern  days.  Thus,  as  is  mentioned  by  Rosen- 
miiller,  on  March  27th,  1703,  Pere  Romauld,  prior  of  the 
monastery  at  Metz,  noticed  that  the  shadow  on  his  dial 
deviated  an  hour  and  a  half,  owing  to  refraction  in  the 
higher  regions  of  the  atmosphere.^  Or  again,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Bosanquet,  the  same  effect  might  have  been 
produced  by  the  darkening  shadow  of  an  eclipse.  But 
while  he  appealed  to  Divine  indications  the  great 
prophet  did  not  neglect  natural  remedies.  He  ordered 
that  a  cake  of  figs  should  be  laid  on  the  imposthume. 
It  was  a  recognised  and  an  efficient  remedy,  still 
recommended,  centuries  later,  by  Dioscorides,  by  Pliny, 
and  by  St.  Jerome.  By  God's  blessing  on  man's 
therapeutic  care,  the  king  was  speedily  rescued  from 
the  gates  of  death.  Constantly  in  Scripture  what  we 
call  the  miraculous  and  what  we  call  the  providential 
are    mingled    together.       To    those    who    regard    the 

'  There  is  an  exactly  similar  sun-dial  not  far  from  Delhi. 
"^  Journ.  of  Asiatic  Soc,  xv.  286-293. 


XX.  I -19.]  THE  EMBASSY  FROM  BABYLON  313 


providential  as  a  constant  miracle,  the  question  of  the 
miraculous  becomes  subordinate/ 

With  intense  joy  and  gratitude  the  king  hailed  the 
respite  which  God  had  granted. him.  In  fifteen  years 
much  might  be  done,  much  might  be  hoped  for.  All 
this  he  acknowledged  with  deep  feeling  in  the  song 
which  he  wrote  on  his  recovery. 

"  I  shall  go  as  in  solemn  procession  ^  all  my  years  because  of  the 
bitterness  of  my  soul. 
O  Lord,  by  these  things  men  live, 
And  wholly  therein  is  the  life  of  my  spirit. 
Behold,  it  was  for  my  peace  that  I  had  great  bitterness ; 
But  Thou  hast  loved  my  soul  from  the  pit  of  nothingness  : 
For  Thou  hast  cast  all  my  sins  behind  Thy  back. 

The  Lord  is  ready  to  save  me  ; 

Therefore  will  we  sing  my  songs  to  the  stringed  instruments 

All  the  days  of  our  life  in  the  house  of  the  Lord."  ^ 

"  The  wonder  done  in  the  land  "  was,  according  to 
the  Chronicler,  one  of  the  grounds  for  the  embassy 
which,  after  his  recovery,  Hezekiah  received  from 
Merodach-Baladan,  the  patriot  prince  of  Babylon.  The 
other  ostensible  object  of  the  embassy  was  to  send 
letters  and  a  present  in  congratulation  for  the  king's 
restoration  to  health.  But  the  real  object  lay  deeper, 
out  of  sight.  It  was  to  secure  a  southern  alliance  for 
Babylon  against  the  incessant  tyranny  of  Nineveh. 


•  Figs  have  a  recognised  use  for  imposthumes.  See  Dioscorides 
and  Pliny  quoted  in  Celsius,  Hierobol.,  ii.  373.  In  the  passage  of 
Berachoth  quoted  above,  Hezekiah  in  his  sickness  asks  Isaiah  to 
give  him  his  daughter  in  marriage,  that  he  may  have  an  heir.  Isaiah 
replies  that  the  decree  of  his  death  is  irrevocable.  The  king  bids 
Isaiah  depart,  and  says  (quoting  Job  xiii.  15)  that  a  man  must  not 
despair,  even  if  a  sword  is  laid  on  his  neck. 

-  Comp.  Psalm  xlii.  4. 

*  Isa.  xxxviii.  10-20. 


314  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Merodach-Baladan  is  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  of 
Sargon.^  He  is  described  as  "  Merodach-Baladan,  son 
of  Baladan,  King  of  Sumir  and  Accad,  king  of  the  four 
countries,  and  conqueror  of  all  his  enemies."  There 
had  been  long  struggles,  lasting  indeed  for  centuries, 
between  the  city  on  the  Euphrates  and  the  city  on  the 
Tigris.  Sometimes  one,  sometimes  the  other,  had  been 
victorious.  Babylon — on  the  monuments  Kur-Dunyash 
— had  its  original  Accadian  name  of  Ca-dinirra,  which, 
like  its  Semitic  equivalent  Bal-el,  means  "Gate  of  God." 
Kalah  (Larissa  and  Birs  Nimroud)  had  been  built  by 
Shalmaneser  I.  before  B.C.  1300.  His  son  conquered 
Babylon,  but  not  permanently  ;  for  in  some  later  raid 
the  Babylonians  got  possession  of  his  signet-ring,  with 
its  proud  inscription,  "  Conqueror  of  Kur-Dunyash," 
and  it  was  not  recovered  by  the  Assyrians  till  six 
centuries  later,  when  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  Sen- 
nacherib. About  1 1 50  Nebuchadrezzar  I.  of  Babylon 
thrice  invaded  Assyria,  but  there  was  again  peace 
and  alliance  in  iioo.  Merodach-Baladan  I.  reigned 
before  900.  The  king  who  now  sought  the  friendship 
of  Hezekiah  was  the  second  of  the  name.  He  seized 
or  recovered  the  throne   of  Babylon  in  721,  after  the 


'  The  Babylonian  form  of  his  name  is  Marduk-habal-iddi-na — i.e., 
"  Merodach  gave  a  son."  He  is  the  Mardokempados  of  the  Ptolemaic 
Canon,  and  the  second  fragment  of  his  reign  (six  months)  is  men- 
tioned by  Polyhistor  (ap.  Euseb.).  Josephiis  calls  him  Baladan 
{Antt.,  X.  ii.  2).  He  was  originally  the  prince  of  the  Chaldaean  Bit 
Yakint,  Sargon  calls  him  "  Merodach-Baladan,  the  foe,  the  perverse, 
who,  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  great  gods,  ruled  as  king  at  Babylon." 
He  displaced  him  for  a  time  by  "  Belibus,  the  son  of  a  wise  man, 
whom  one  had  reared  like  a  little  dog  "  (as  we  might  say  "  like  a 
tame  cat  ")  "  in  my  palace  "  (Schrader,  ii.  32).  In  the  Assj'rian  records 
he  is  often  called  (by  mistake?)  "the  son  of  Yakim."  For  the  adven- 
tures of  the  Babylonian  hero,  see  Schrader,  A'.  A.  T.,  213  ff.,  224  ft"., 
227,  and  in  Riehm,  Handw'drterbuch,  ii.  982. 


XX.  i-io.]  THE  EMBASSY  FROM  BABYLON  315 


death  of  Shalmaneser,  perhaps  because  Sargon  was  a 
usurper  of  dubious  descent.  He  helped  the  Elamites 
against  Assyria.  Sargon  was  compelled  to  retreat  to 
Assyria,  but  returned  in  712,  and  drove  Merodach- 
Baladan  to  flight.  He  was  captured  and  taken  to 
Assyria.  But  on  the  murder  of  Sargon  in  705,  he 
again  managed  to  seize  the  throne  of  Babylon,  killed 
the  viceroy  who  had  been  set  up,  and  became  king 
for  six  months.  After  this,  Sennacherib  invaded  his 
country,  defeated  him,  and  drove  him  once  more  to 
flight.     He  was  perhaps  killed  by  his  successor. 

Whether  his  overtures  to  Hezekiah  took  place  before 
his  defeat  by  Sargon,  or  after  his  escape,  is  uncertain. 
In  either  case  he  doubtless  sent  a  splendid  embassy, 
for  Babylon  was  far-famed  for  its  golden  magnificence 
as  "the  glory  of  kingdoms"  and  "the  beauty  of  the 
Chaldees'  excellency."^  At  that  time  the  Jews  knew 
but  little  of  the  far-off  city  which  was  destined  to 
be  so  closely  interwoven  with  their  future  fortunes, 
as  it  was  mingled  with  their  oldest  and  dimmest  tradi- 
tions.^ Apart  from  the  magnificence  of  the  presents 
brought  to  him,  it  was  not  unnatural  that  Hezekiah 
should  regard  this  embassy  with  intense  satisfaction. 
It  was  flattering  to  the  power  of  his  little  kingdom  that 
its  alliance  should  be  sought  by  the  far-off  and  powerful 
capital  on  the  great  river ;  ^  it  was  still  more  encouraging 
to  know  that  the  frightful  Nineveh  had  a  strong  enemy 
not  far  from  her  own  frontier.  Merodach-Baladan's  am- 
bassadors would  be  sure  to  inform  Hezekiah  that  their 
lord  had  flung  off  the  authority  of  Sargon,  had  kept 
him  at  bay  for  many  years,  and  was  still  the  undisputed 


'  Isa.  xiv.  4,  xiii.  19. 

*  Gen.  X.  10,  II,  xi.  1-9. 

"  Jos.,  Anit.,  X.  ii.  2 :  "Z^nf.i.axov  re  avrbv  dpai.  irapemXec  /cot  (pi\ov. 


3i6  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


king  of  the  dominions  snatched  from  the  common  enemy. 
It  might  have  seemed  reasonable  that  Hezekiah,  for  his 
part,  should  desire  to  leave  the  most  favourable  im- 
pression of  his  wealth  and  power  on  the  mind  of  his 
distant  and  magnificent  ally.  He  "hearkened  unto" 
the  ambassadors,  or,  more  properly,  "  he  was  glad  of 
them  "  (R.V.),^  and  "  showed  them  all  the  house  of  his 
spicery  and  other  treasures,  his  precious  unguents,  his 
armoury,  his  bullion,  plate,  and  the  whole  resources 
of  his  kingdom."  The  Chronicler  regards  this  as 
ingratitude  to  God.  He  says  that  "  Hezekiah  rendered 
not  again  according  unto  the  benefits  done  unto  him ; 
for  his  heart  was  lifted  up  :  therefore  there  was  wrath 
upon  him,  and  upon  Judah  and  Jerusalem."  It  is  a 
severe  judgment  of  later  times,  and  the  historian  of 
the  Kings  pronounces  no  such  censure.  Nevertheless, 
he  records  the  stern  sentence  pronounced  by  Isaiah. 
The  prophet  had  seen  through  the  secret  diplomacy 
of  the  Babylonian  ambassadors,  and  knew  that  the  real 
object  of  their  mission  was  to  induce  his  king  to  revolt 
against  Assyria  in  reliance  on  an  arm  of  flesh.  He 
came  to  ask  Hezekiah  whose  these  men  were,  whence 
they  came,  and  what  they  had  said.  The  king  told 
him  who  they  were,  and  how  he  had  received  them ; 
but  he  did  not  think  it  wise  to  reveal  their  secret 
proposals.  If  Isaiah  had  so  vehemently  reproved  all 
negotiations  with  Egypt,  there  was  little  probability 
that  he  would  sanction  the  overtures  of  Babylon.  He 
saw  in  Hezekiah's  conduct  a  vein  of  ostentatious 
elation,  a  swerving  from  theocratic  faith ;  and  with 
remarkable  prophetic  insight  convinced  the  king  of  the 
error  and  impolicy  of  his  proceedings,  by  announcing 
that  the  final  and,  in  fact,  irrevocable  captivity  of  Judah 
'  2  Kings  XX.  13.     LXX,,  ix'^PV- 


XX.  1-19.]  THE  EMBASSY  FROM  BABYLON  317 

would  ultimately  come,  not  from  Nineveh,  the  fierce 
enemy,  whose  cloud  of  war  was  lurid  on  the  horizon, 
but  from  Babylon,  the  apparently  weaker  friend,  who 
was  now  making  overtures  of  amity.  With  what 
heartrending  grief  must  the  king  have  heard  the  doom 
that  the  display  of  his  treasures  would  prove  to  be  in 
the  future  an  incentive  to  the  cupidity  of  the  kings  of 
Babylon,  and  that  they  would  sweep  away  all  those 
precious  things  to  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  with 
such  final  overthrow  that  even  the  descendants  of 
David  should  be  sunk  to  the  infinite  degradation  of 
being  eunuchs  in  the  palace  of  the  King  of  Babylon.^ 
The  doom  seems  to  have  been  fulfilled  in  part  in  the 
reign  of  Hezekiah's  son,  and  more  fearfully  in  the  days 
of  his  great-grandchildren.^ 

The  king's  pride  was  humbled  to  the  dust.  In  the 
spirit  of  Job — "  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken 
away  ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord  "  ^ — he  resigned 
himself  without  a  murmur  to  the  will  of  Heaven,  and 
exclaimed  that  all  which  God  did  must  be  well  done. 
At  least  God  granted  him  a  respite.  Peace  and  truth 
would  be  in  his  own  days ;  for  that  let  him  be  thankful. 
They  were  words  of  humble  resignation,  uttered  by  one 
who  had  learnt  to  believe  that  whatever  God  decreed 
was  just  and  right. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  measure  the  feelings  of  those 
far  centuries  by  those  of  our  own  day,  and  there  was 
none  of  the  gross  selfishness  in  the  words  of  Hezekiah 
which  led  Nero  to  quote  the  line — 

"When  I  am  dead,  let  earth  be  mixed  with  fire"; 

or  which  led  Louis  XIV.  to  say — 

"  Apres  moi  le  deluge." 
'  See  Dan.  i.  6.  -  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  11.  ^  Job  i.  21. 


3i8  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

We  may  perhaps  trace  in  his  exclamation  something  of 
the  fataJism  which  gives  a  touch  of  apathy  to  the  sub- 
missiveness  of  the  Oriental.  Some,  too,  have  imagined 
that  his  distress  was  tinged  by  a  gleam  of  happiness 
at  the  implicit  promise  that  he  should  have  a  son.  His 
wife's  name  was  Hephzibah  (**  My  delight  is  in  her)," 
and  within  two  years  she  brought  forth  the  firstborn 
son,  whose  career,  indeed,  was  dark  and  evil,  but  who 
became  in  due  time  an  ancestor  of  the  promised  Messiah. 
The  name  "  Manasseh "  given  him  by  his  parents 
recalled  the  child  born  to  Joseph  in  the  land  of  his 
exile  who  had  caused  him  to  forget  his  sorrows.^ 
Hezekiah  had  the  spirit  which  says, — 

"That  which  Thou  blessest  is  most  good, 
And  unblest  good  is  ill ; 
And  all  is  right  which  seems  most  wrong, 
So  it  be  Thy  sweet  will." 


'  Manasseh  seems  to  mean  "one  who  forgets."  See  Gen.  xli.  51. 
It  was  the  name  of  the  husband  of  Judith  (Judith  viii.  2),  and  is  found 
in  Ezra  x.  30,  33, 


CHAPTER    XXVII 

HEZEKIAH  ^4ND    ASSYRIA 

B.C.    701 

2  Kings  xviii.   13 — xix.  37. 

'AXX'  6  crocpdiTaTos  jSacrtXeys  ovx  oirXa  rais  eKelvoov  I3\a(rrp7]/j.lais,  dWa. 
irpo<T€VXW  K"^'-  SaKpva.  Kai  aaKKOv  dvTera^ev. — Theodoret. 

"  When,  sudden — how  thmk  ye  the  end  ? 
Did  I  say  '  without  friend '  ? 
Say  rather  from  marge  to  blue  marge 
The  whole  sky  grew  his  targe, 
With  the  sun's  self  for  visible  boss, 
While  an  Arm  ran  across 

Which  the  earth  heaved  beneath  like  a  breast. 
Where  the  wretch  was  safe  pressed." 

Browning. 

ALTHOUGH  during  a  few  memorable  scenes  the 
relations  of  Judah  with  Assyria  in  the  reign  of 
Hezekiah  leap  into  fierce  light,  many  previous  details 
are  unfortunately  left  in  the  deepest  obscurity — an 
obscurity  all  the  more  impenetrable  from  the  lack  of 
certain  dates.  It  will  perhaps  help  to  simplify  our  con- 
ceptions if  we  first  sketch  what  is  known  of  Assyria  from 
the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  and  then  fill  up  the  sketch 
of  those  scenes  which  are  more  minutely  delineated  in 
the  Book  of  Kings  and  in  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah. 

Sargon — perhaps  a  successful  general  of  royal  blood, 
though  he  never  calls  himself  the  son  of  any  one^ — 

'  One  legend  of  his  birth  resembles  the  finding  of  Moses  in  the 
bulrushes. 

319 


320  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

seems  to  have  usurped  the  throne  on  the  death  of 
Shalmaneser  IV.,  during  the  siege  of  Samaria  in  b.c. 
722.  He  took  Samaria,  deported  its  inhabitants,  and 
re  peopled  it  from  the  Assyrian  dominions.  "In  their 
place,"  he  says,  in  his  tablets  in  the  halls  of  his  palace 
at  Khorsabad,  "  I  settled  the  men  of  countries  con- 
quered [by  my  hand]."  ^  In  720  he  suppressed  a 
futile  attempt  at  revolt,  headed  by  a  pretender  named 
Yahubid,  in  Hamath,  which  he  reduced  to  "a  heap  of 
ruins."  For  some  years  after  this  he  was  occupied 
mainly  on  his  northern  frontiers,  but  he  tells  us  that 
until  711  tribute  continued  to  come  in  from  Judah  and 
Philistia.  Meanwhile,  these  terrified  and  oppressed 
feudatories,  writhing  under  the  remorseless  dominion 
of  Nineveh,  naturally  began  to  listen  to  the  intrigues 
of  Egypt,  whose  interest  it  was  to  create  a  bulwark 
between  herself  and  the  invasion  of  the  armies  which 
were  the  abhorrence  of  the  world.  Under  the  influence 
of  Sabaco,  which  gave  new  strength  and  unity  to  Egypt, 
she  succeeded  in  seducing  Ashdod  from  its  allegiance  to 
Sargon.  Sargon  at  once  deposed  Azuri,  King  of  Ash- 
dod, and  put  his  brother  Ahimit  in  his  place.  The 
Ashdodites  soon  after  deposed  Ahimit,  and  elected 
in  his  place  Jaman,  who  was  in  alliance  with  Sabaco.^ 
This  revolt  was  evidently  favoured  by  Judah,  Edom, 
and  Moab ;  for  Sargon  says  that  they,  as  well  as  the 
people  of  Philistia,  "  were  speaking  treason."  The 
rebellion  was  crushed  by  Sargon's  promptitude."  He 
tells  his  own  tale  thus  : — 

"  In  the  wrath  of  my  heart  I  did  not  divide  my  army, 
and  I  did  not  diminish  the  ranks,  but  I  marched  against 

'  Schrader,  K.  A,  T.,  pp.  272-274;  Records  0/ the  Past,  vii.  28. 
*  Smith,  Eponym  Canon,  p.  130. 
^  bee  Prof.  Smith,  Isaiah,  p.  198. 


xviH.  i3-xix.37]      HEZEKIAH  AND   ASSYRIA 


Ashdod  with  my  warriors,  who  did  not  separate  them- 
selves from  the  traces  of  my  sandals.  I  besieged,  I 
took  Ashdod  and  Gunt-Asdodim.  I  then  re-established 
these  towns.  I  placed  [in  them]  the  people  whom  my 
arms  had  conquered,  I  put  over'  them  my  lieutenant  as 
governor.  I  regarded  them  as  Assyrians,  and  they 
practised  obedience."^ 

Sargon  does  not,  however,  seem  to  have  conducted 
this  campaign  in  person  ;  for  we  read  in  Isa.  xx.  i 
that  he  sent  his  Turtan — i.e.,  his  commander-in-chief,^ 
whose  name  seems  to  have  been  Zir-bani — to  Ashdod, 
who  fought  against  it  and  took  it.  The  wretched 
Philistines  had  put  their  trust  in  Sabaco.  "  The 
people,"  says  Sargon,  "and  their  evil  chiefs  sent  their 
presents  to  Pharaoh,  King  of  Egypt,  a  prince  who  could 
not  save  them,  and  besought  his  alliance."  Isaiah  had 
for  three  years  been  indicating  how  vain  this  policy  was 
by  one  of  those  acted  parables  which  so  powerfully 
affect  the  Eastern  mind.  He  had,  by  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  stripped  the  shoes  from  off  his  feet  and  the  upper 
robe  of  sackcloth  from  his  loins,  and  walked,  "  naked 
and  barefoot,  for  a  sign  and  portent  against  Egypt  and 
Ethiopia,"  to  indicate  that  even  thus  should  the  people 
of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia  be  carried  away  as  captives, 
naked  and  barefoot,  by  the  kings  of  Assyria.  Egypt 
was  the  boast  of  one  party  at  Jerusalem,  and  Ethiopia, 
which  had  now  become  master  of  Egypt  under  Sabaco, 
was  their  expectation  ;  but  Isaiah's  public  self-humilia- 

'  Records  of  the  Past,  vii.  40.  Sargon's  words  are,  "  The  people  of 
Philistia,  Judah,  Edom,  and  Moabwere  speaking  treason.  The  people 
and  their  evil  chiefs,  to  fight  against  me,  unto  Pharaoh,  the  King  of 
Egvpt,  a  monarch  who  could  not  save  them,  their  presents  carried, 
and  besought  his  alliance  "  (G.  Smith,  Assyrian  Discoveries,  290). 

-  On  the  monuments  called  Turtami,  ,'^  Wonder  of  power."  See 
Schrader  in  Riehm,  s.v. 

21 


322  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

tion  showed  how  vitterly  their  hopes  should  come  to 
nought.-  Before  the  outbreak  at  Ashdod,  Sargon  had 
suppressed  a  revolt  of  Hanun,  or  Hanno,  King  of  Gaza, 
and  Egypt  and  Assyria  first  met  face  to  face  at  Raphia 
(about  B.C.  720),  where  Sabaco  fought  in  person  with 
an  Egyptian  contingent,  at  a  spot  half-way  between 
Gaza  and  the  "  river  of  Egypt."  ^  Sabaco,  whom  Sargon 
calls  "  the  Sultan  of  Egypt  "  (Siltannu  Muzri),  had  been 
defeated,  and  fled  precipitatel}',  but  Sargon  was  not  then 
sufficiently  free  from  other  complications  to  advance  to 
the  Nile.  The  hoarded  vengeance  of  Assyria  was  in- 
flicted upon  Egypt  nearly  a  century  later  by  Esarhaddon 
and  Assurbanipal. 

In  the  two  suppressions  of  revolt  at  Ashdod,  Sargon 
or  his  Turtan  must  have  come  perilously  near  Jerusalem, 
and  perhaps  he  may  have  inflicted  sufficient  damage  to 
admit  of  the  boast  that  he  had  "  conquered "  Judaea. 
If  so,  his  military  vanity  made  him  guilty  of  an 
exaggeration. 

Far  more  serious  to  Sargon  was  the  revolt  of  Mero- 
dach-Baladan,  King  of  Chaldaea.  Babylon  had  always 
been  a  rival  of  Nineveh  in  the  competition  for  world- 
wide dominion,  and  for  twelve  years,  as  Sargon  says, 
Merodach-Baladan  had  been  "sending  ambassadors  "^ — 


'  Raphia,  or  Ropeh,  is  on  the  borders  of  the  desert.  Asia  beat 
Africa  in  every  encounter— at  Raphia,  at  Altaqu,  at  Carchemish. 
The  impression  of  the  seal  of  Shabak,  attached  to  his  capitulations 
with  Sargon,  was  found  at  Nineveh  by  Sir  A.  H.  Laj'ard,  and  is  now 
in  the  British  Museum.  Shabak  died  in  712.  His  son  Shabatoh 
succeeded  him  in  Egypt,  and  his  nephew  (?)  Tirhakah  in  Ethiopia. 
Sabaco's  name  assumes  many  forms  (LXX.,  S177C6/J ;  Herod.,  ii.  137; 
2aj3a/c(is ;  Vulg.,  Sua).     The  Egyptians  called  him  Shaba(ka). 

-  Isa.  XX.   1-6. 

^  Lenormant,  Les  Premieres  Civilisations,  ii.  203 ;  Records  of  the 
Past,  vii.  41-46. 


xviii.  i3-xix.  37]      HEZEKIAH  AND  ASSYRIA  325 


to  Hezekiah  among  others — in  the  patient  effort  to 
consohdate  a  formidable  league.  Elam  and  Media  were 
with  him  ;  and  at  a  solemn  banquet,  for  which  they  had 
**  spread  the  carpets,"  ^  and  eaten  and  drank,  the  cry 
had  risen,  "  Arise,  ye  princes  1  anoint  the  shield.  ' 
Standing  in  ideal  vision  on  his  watch-tower,  Isaiah  saw 
the  sweeping  rush  of  the  Assyrian  troops  on  their 
horses  and  camels  on  their  way  to  Babylon.  What 
should  come  of  it  ?  The  answer  is  in  the  words, 
"  Fallen,  fallen  is  Babylon,  and  all  the  images  of  her 
gods  he  [Sargon]  hath  broken  to  the  ground."  Alas  1 
there  is  no  hope  from  Babylon  or  its  embassy  I  Would 
that  Isaiah  could  have  held  out  a  hope  !  But  no,  "  O  my 
threshed  one,  son  of  my  threshing-floor,  that  which  I 
have  heard  from  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel, 
that  have  I  declared  unto  you."  ^  And  so  it  came  to 
pass.  The  brave  Babylonian  was  defeated.  In  709 
Sargon  occupied  his  palace,  took  Dur-yakin,  to  which  he 
had  fled  for  refuge,  and  made  himself  Lord  Paramount 
as  far  as  the  Persian  Gulf  It  was  his  last  great  enter- 
prise. He  built  and  adorned  his  palaces,  and  looked 
forward  to  long  years  of  peace  and  splendour ;  but  in 
705  the  dagger-thrust  of  an  assassin — a  malcontent  of 
the  town  of  Kullum — found  its  way  to  his  heart ;  and 
Sennacherib  reigned  in  his  stead. 

Sennacherib — Sin-ahi-irba  ("  Sin,  the  moon-god,  has 


'  Isa.  xxi.  6,  A. v.,  "  Watch  in  the  watch-tower."  Hitzig,  Cheyne, 
"They  spread  the  carpets."  Much  in  this  short  oracle  (xxi.  i-io) 
is  obscure.  Isaiah  seems,  in  denouncing  the  fate  of  Babylon,  to 
mourn  for  the  ruin  of  the  smaller  states  of  which  it  was  the  prelude 
(G.  Smith,  Soc.  of  Bibl.  Arch.,  ii.  320  :  Kleinert,  Stud.  u.  Krit.,  1877  > 
W.  R.  Smith  in  Enc.  Brit.,  s.v.  "Isaiah  "). 

^  Isa.  xxi.  10 — i.e.,  "My  people  threshed  and  trodden"; 
LXX.,  6  KaraXeXei/jifi^vos  Kod  ol  65vvd)fi€Pot ;  Records  of  the  Past, 
vii.  47. 


324  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


multiplied  brothers  ") ' — was  one  of  the  haughtiest,  most 
splendid,  and  most  powerful  of  all  the  kings  of  Assyria, 
though  the  petty  state  of  Judah,  relying  on  her  God, 
defied  and  flouted  him.  The  son  of  a  mighty  conqueror, 
at  the  head  of  a  magnificent  army,  he  regarded  himself 
as  the  undisputed  lord  of  the  world.^  Born  in  the 
purple,  and  bred  up  as  crown  prince,  his  primary 
characteristic  was  an  overweening  pride  and  arrogance, 
which  shows  itself  in  all .  his  inscriptions.  He  calls 
himself  "  the  Great  King,  the  Powerful  King,  the  King 
of  the  Assyrians,  of  the  nations  of  the  four  regions, 
the  diligent  ruler,  the  favourite  of  the  Great  Gods,  the 
observer  of  sworn  faith,  the  guardian  of  law,  the  esta- 
blisher  of  monuments,  the  noble  hero,  the  strong 
warrior,  the  first  of  kings,  the  punisher  of  unbelievers, 
the  destroyer  of  wicked  men."  ^  He  was  mighty  both 
in  war  and  peace.  His  warlike  glories  are  attested  by 
Herodotus,  by  Polyhistor,  by  Abydenus,  by  Demetrius, 
and  by  his  own  annals.  His  peaceful  triumphs  are 
attested  by  the  great  palace  which  he  erected  at  Nineveh, 
and  the  magnificent  series  of  sculptured  slabs  ^  with 
which  he  adorned  it ;  by  his  canals  and  aqueducts,  his 
gateways  and  embankments,  his  Bavian  sculpture,  and 
his  stele  at  the  Nahr-el-Kelb.     He  was  a  worthy  suc- 

'  Herod,,  "Lavaxo-pi^os",  Jos.,  "Zevaxfipi^oi.  See  Appendix  I.  Sin 
was  the  moon-god;  Merodach,  the  planet  Jupiter;  Adar,  Saturn; 
Ishtai,  Venus;  Nebo,  Mercury;  Nergal,  Mars  (Schrader,  ii.  1 1 7). 

^  Sargon  seems  to  have  been  murdered  in  the  palace  of  unparalleled 
splendour  which  he  built  at  Dur-Sharrukin  ("  The  City  of  Sargon  "). 
It  took  him  five  years  to  build  it  with  armies  of  workmen.  Its  halls, 
opened  by  Botta,  were  the  first  Assyrian  halls  ever  entered  by  a 
modern's  foot.  It  is  strange  that  this  greatest  of  Assyrian  kings  is 
only  mentioned  once  in  the  Bible  (Isa.  xx.  i).  We  owe  to  Assyrio- 
logy  his  restoration  to  his  proper  place  in  the  annals  of  mankind.  See 
Ragozin,  Assyria,  247-254. 

^  Rawlinson,  Ancient  Monarchies,  ii.  178. 


xviii.  13-xix.  37.]       HEZEKIAH  AND  ASSYRIA 


cesser  of  his  father  Sargon,  and  of  the  second  Tiglath- 
Pileser — active  in  his  military  enterprises,  indefatigable, 
persevering,  full  of  resource.^ 

On  one  of  his  bas-reliefs  we  see  this  magnificent 
potentate  seated  on  his  throne;  holding  two  arrows  in 
his  right  hand,  while  his  left  grasps  the  bow.  A  rich 
bracelet  clasps  each  of  his  brawny  arms.  On  his  head 
is  the  jewelled  pyramidal  crown  of  Assyria,  with  its 
embroidered  lappets.  His  dark  locks  stream  down  over 
his  shoulders,  and  the  long,  curled  beard  flows  over  his 
breast.  His  strongly  marked,  sensual  features  wear  an 
aspect  of  unearthly  haughtiness.  He  is  clad  in  superbly 
broidered  robes,  and  his  throne  is  covered  with  rich 
tapestries,  and  bas-reliefs  of  Assyrians  or  captives,  who, 
like  the  Greek  caryatides,  uphold  its  divisions  with  their 
heads  and  arms. 

Yet  all  this  glory  faded  into  darkness,  and  all  this 
colossal  pride  crumbled  into  dust.  Sennacherib  not 
only  died,  like  his  father,  by  murder,  but  by  the 
murderous  hands  of  his  own  sons,  and  after  the 
shattering  of  all  his  immense  pretensions — a  defeated 
and  dishonoured  man. 

One  of  his  invasions  of  Judaea  occupies  a  large  part 
of  the  Scripture  narrative.^  It  was  the  fourth  time 
of  that  terrible  contact  between  the  great  world-power 
which  symbolised  all  that  was  tyrannic  and  idolatrous, 
and  the  insignificant  tribe  which  God  had  chosen  for 
His  own  inheritance. 

'  Canon  Rawlinson,  Kings  of  Israel  and  Judah,  187. 

"^  On  his  own  monuments  this  campaign,  except  its  final  catastrophe, 
is  narrated  in  four  sections  :  (l)  The  subjugation  of  Phoenicia,  and  of 
Philistine  towns  ;  (2)  the  conquest  of  King  Zidka  of  Askelon  ;  (3)  the 
defeat  of  Ekron,  the  restoration  of  their  vassal  king  Padi  to  his 
throne,  and  the  defeat  of  Egypt  at  Altaqu  ;  (4)  the  expedition 
agaiuoi.  Jerusalem  (Schrader,  E.  Tr.,  i.  298).     See  Appendix  I. 


?26  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


In  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  about  B.C.  732,  Judah  had 
come  into  collision  with  Tiglath-Pileser  II. 

Under  Shalmaneser  IV.  and  Sargon,  the  Northern 
Kingdom  had  ceased   to  exist  in  722. 

Under  Sargon,  Judah  had  been  harassed  and  humbled, 
and  had  witnessed  the  suppression  of  the  Philistian 
revolt,  and  of  the  defeat  of  the  powerful  Sabaco  at 
Raphia  about  720. 

Now  came  the  fourth  and  most  overwhelming  calamity. 
If  the  patriots  of  Jerusalem  had  placed  any  hopes  in 
the  disappearance  of  the  ferocious  Sargon,  they  must 
speedily  have  recognfsed  that  he  had  left  behind  him  a 
no  less  terrible  successor. 

Sennacherib  reigned  apparently  twenty-four  years 
(b.c.  705-681).  On  his  accession  he  placed  a  brother, 
whose  name  is  unknown,  on  the  vice-regal  throne  of 
Babylon,  and  contented  himself  with  the  title  of  King 
of  the  Assyrians.  This  brother  was  speedily  dethroned 
by  a  usurper  named  Hagisa,  who  only  reigned  thirty 
days,  and  was  then  slain  by  the  indefatigable  Merodach- 
Baladan,  who  held  the  throne  for  six  months.  He  was 
driven  out  by  Belibus,  who  had  been  trained  "like  a 
little  dog "  in  the  palace  of  Nineveh,^  but  was  now 
made  King  of  Sumir  and  Accad — i.e.,  of  Babylonia. 
Sennacherib  entered  the  palace  of  Babylon  and  carried 
off  the  wife  of  Merodach  and  endless  spoil  in  triumph, 
while  Merodach  fled  into  the  land  of  Guzumman,  and 
(like  the  Duke  of  Monmouth)  hid  himself  "  among  the 
marshes  and  reeds,"  where  the  Assyrians  searched  for 
him  for  five  days,  but  found  no  trace  of  him.  After 
three  years  (702-699)   Belibus   proved    faithless,   and 

'  This  allusion  is  said  to  be  the  only  instance  of  humour — "grim 
humour,  or  it  would  not  be  Assyrian " — which  occurs  in  the 
Assyrian  annals. 


xviii.  i3-xix.  37-]      HEZEKIAH  AND  ASSYRIA  327 


Sennacherib  made  his  son  Assur-nadin-sum  viceroy 
of  Babylon. 

His  second  campaign  was  against  the  Medes  in 
Northern  Elam. 

His  third  (701)  was  against  the  Khatti  (the  Hittites) 
— i.e.,  against  Phoenicia  and  Palestine.^  He  drove  King 
Luli  from  Sidon  **  by  the  mere  terror  of  the  splendour 
of  my  sovereignty/'  and  placed  Tubalu  {i.e.,  Ithbaal) 
in  his  place,  and  subdued  into  tributary  districts  Arpad, 
Byblos,  Ashdod,  Ammon,  Moab,  and  Edom,  suppressing 
at  the  same  time  a  very  abortive  rising  in  Samaria. 
*'  All  these  brought  rich  presents  and  kissed  my  feet." 
He  also  subdued  Zidka,  King  of  Askelon,  from  whom 
he  took  Beth-Dagon,  Joppa,  and  other  towns.  Padi, 
the  King  of  Ekron,  was  a  faithful  vassal  of  Assyria  ; 
he  was  therefore  deposed  by  the  revolting  Ekronites, 
and  sent  in  chains  into  the  safe  custody  of  Hezekiah, 
who  "imprisoned  him  in  darkness."  The  rebel  states 
all  relied  on  the  Egyptians  and  Ethiopians.  Sennacherib 
fought  against  Egyptians  and  Ethiopians,  "  in  reliance 
upon  Assur  my  God,"  at  Altaqu  (b.c.  701),  and  claims 
to  have  defeated  them,  and  carried  off  the  sons  and 
charioteers  of  the  King  of  Egypt,  and  the  charioteers 
of  the  kings  of  Ethiopia."  He  then  tells  us  that  he 
punished  Altaqu  and  Timnath.^  He  impaled  the  rebels 
of  Ekron  on  stakes  all  round  the  city.  He  restored  Padi, 
and  made  him  a  vassal.  "  Hezekiah  [Chazaqiahu]  of 
Judah,  who  had  not  submitted  to  my  yoke,  the  terror  of 

'  Schrader,  pp.  234-279.  The  account  of  the  memorable  campaign 
is  narrated  in  dupHcate  on  the  Taylor  Cj^linder  in  the  British  Museum, 
and  on  the  Bull  Inscription  at  Kouyunjik. 

^  Sennacherib  calls  Tirhakah's  army  "  a  host  that  no  man  could 
number  " ;  but  it  was  defeated  by  the  better  discipline,  the  heavier 
armour,  and  the  superior  physical  strength  of  the  Assj'rians. 

'  See  Josh.  xix.  43. 


-X2S  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


the  splendour  of  my  sovereignty  overwhelmed.  Him- 
self as  a  bird  in  a  cage,  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  his 
royal  city,  I  shut  up.  The  Arabians  and  his  depen- 
dants, whom  he  had  introduced  for  the  defence  of 
Jerusalem,  his  royal  city,  together  with  thirty  talents 
of  gold,  eight  hundred  of  silver,  bullion,  precious  stones, 
ivory  couches  and  thrones,  an  abundant  treasure,  with 
his  daughters,  his  harem,  and  his  attendants,  I  caused 
to  be  brought  after  me  to  Nineveh.  He  sent  his  envoy 
to  pay  tribute  and  render  homage."  At  the  same  time, 
he  overran  Judaea,  took  forty-six  fenced  cities  and 
many  smaller  towns,  "with  laying  down  of  walls, 
hewing  about,  and  trampling  down,"  and  carried  oft 
more  than  two  hundred  thousand  captives  with  their 
spoil.  Part  of  Hezekiah's  domains  was  divided  among 
three  Philistine  vassals  who  had  remained  faithful  to 
Assyria. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  terrible  crisis  that 
Hezekiah  had  sent  to  Sennacherib  at  Lachish  his  offer 
of  submission,  saying,  "  I  have  offended  ;  return  from 
me;  that  which  thou  puttest  upon  me  I  will  bear."^ 
The  spoiling  of  the  palace  and  Temple  was  rendered 
necessary  to  raise  the  vast  mulct  which  the  Assyrian 
King  required." 

It  is  at  Lachish — now  Um-Lakis,  a  fortified  hill  in 
the  Shephelah,  south  of  Jerusalem,  between  Gaza  and 
Eleutheropolis — that  we  catch  another  personal  glimpse 
of  the  mighty  oppressor.  We  see  him  depicted,  on  his 
triumphal  tablets,  in  the  palace-chambers  of  Kouyunjik, 

'  This  very  phrase  "  I  imposed  on  them  "  is  found  on  Sennacherib's 
monument  (Schrader,  ii.  i).  The  references,  when  not  otherwise 
specified,  are  to  Whitehouse's  EngHsh  translation. 

^  In  2  Kings  xviii.  l6  the  word  "pillars"  or  "doorposts"  is 
uncertain.     LXX.,  iaTijptyfxiva;  Vulg.,  lantinas  auri. 


xviii.  i3-xix.  37-]       HEZEKIAH  AND  ASSYRIA  329 

engaged  in  the  siege  ;  for  the  town  offered  a  determined 
resistance/  and  required  all  the  energies  and  all  the 
trained  heroism  of  his  forces.  We  see  him  next, 
carefully  painted,  seated  on  his  royal  throne  in  magnifi- 
cent apparel,  with  his  tiara  and '  bracelets,  receiving  the 
spoils  and  captives  of  the  city.  The  inscription  says  : 
**  Sennacherib,  the  mighty  king,  the  king  of  the  country 
of  Assyria,  sitting  on  the  throne  of  judgment  at  the 
entrance  of  the  city  of  Lakisha.  I  give  permission  for 
its  slaughter."  He  certainly  implied  that  he  took  the 
city,  but  a  doubt  is  thrown  on  this  by  2  Chron,  xxxii.  i, 
which  only  says  that  "  he  thought  to  win  these  cities  "  ; 
and  the  historian  says  (2  Kings  xix.  8)  that  he  "  departed 
from  Lachish."  Lachish  was  evidently  a  very  strong 
city,  and  it  is  so  depicted  in  the  palace-tablets  at 
Kouyunjik.  It  had  been  fortified  by  Rehoboam,  and 
had  furnished  a  refuge  to  the  wretched  Amaziah.^ 

If  Judah  and  Jerusalem  had  listened  to  the  messages 
of  Isaiah,^  they  might  have  been  saved  the  humiliating 
affliction  which  seemed  to  have  plunged  the  brief  sun 
of  their  prosperity  into  seas  of  blood.      He  had  warned 

1  2  Chron.  xxxii.  9.  He  had  to  besiege  it  "  with  all  his  power."  He 
seems  to  have  thought  it  even  more  important  than  Jerusalem,  for  he 
superintended  the  siege  in  person  (Layard,  Nineveh  and  Babylon, 
150;  Monuments  of  Nineveh,  2nd  series,  pi.  21).  The  ruined  Tel  of 
Umm-el-Lakis  lies  between  the  Wady  Simsim  and  the  Wady-el- 
Ahsy  (Riehm). 

'■'  .See  2  Chron.  xi,  9,  xxv.  27;  Jer.  xxxiv.  7.  The  allusion  to  this 
city  in  Micah  (i.  13)  is  obscure:  "O  thou  inhabitant  of  Lachish  [swift 
steed],  bind  the  chariot  to  the  swift  steed  :  she  is  the  beginning  of 
sin  to  the  daughter  of  Zion  :  for  the  transgressions  of  Israel  were 
found  in  thee."  This  seems  to  imply  that  some  form  of  idolatry  had 
come  from  Israel  to  Lachish,  and  from  Lachish  to  Jerusalem.  In 
Sennacherib's  picture  of  the  city,  foreign  worship  is  represented  as 
going  on  in  it  (Layard,  Monuments  of  Nineveh,  Pis.  21  and  24; 
Rawlinson,  Herodotus,  i.  477). 

^  Isa.  xxix.,  XXX.,  xxxi. 


330  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

them  incessantly  and  in  vain.  He  had  foretold  their 
present  desolation,  in  which  Zion  should  be  like  a 
woman  seated  on  the  ground,  wailing  in  her  despair. 
He  had  taught  them  that  formalism  was  no  religion, 
and  that  external  rites  did  not  win  Jehovah's  approval. 
He  had  told  them  how  foolish  it  was  to  put  trust  in  the 
shadow  of  Egypt,  and  had  not  shrunk  from  revealing 
the  fearful  consequences  which  should  follow  the  setting 
up  of  their  own  false  wisdom  against  the  wisdom  of 
Jehovah,  Yet,  intermingled  with  pictures  of  suffering, 
and  threats  of  a  harvestless  year,  designed  to  punish 
the  vanity  and  display  of  their  women,  and  the  intima- 
tion— never  actually  fulfilled — that  even  the  palace  and 
Temple  should  become  "  the  joy  of  wild  asses,  a  pasture 
of  flocks,"  he  constantly  implies  that  the  disaster 
would  be  followed  by  a  mysterious,  divine,  complete 
deliverance,  and  ultimately  by  a  Messianic  reign  of  joy 
and  peace.  Night  is  at  hand,  he  said,  and  darkness ; 
but  after  the  darkness  will  come  a  brighter  dawn. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 

THE  GREAT  DELIVERANCE 

B.C.     701 

2  Kings  xix.  i — 37 

"There. brake  He  the  Hghtnings  of  the  bow,  the  shield,  the  sword, 
and  the  battle." — Psalm  Ixxvi.  3. 

"  ySr;  irphs  rbv  Aaffijpiov." — LXX. 

"  And  the  might  of  the  Gentile,   unsmote  by  the  sword, 
Hath  melted  like  snow  at  the  glance  of  the  Lord." 

Byron. 

"Vuolsi  cosi  cola  dove  si  puote 
Cio  che  si  vuole  :  e  piii  non  dimandare." 

Dante. 

"  Through  love,  through  hope,  through  faith's  transcendent  dower, 
We  feel  that  we  are  greater  than  we  know." 

Wordsworth. 

"God  shall  help  her,  and  that  when  the  morning  dawns." — 
Psalm  xlvi.  5. 

IN  spite  of  the  humble  submission  of  Hezekiah,  it  is 
a  surprise  to  learn  from  Isaiah  that  Sennacherib — 
after  he  had  accepted  the  huge  fine  and  fixed  the 
tribute,  and  departed  to  subdue  Lachish — broke  his 
covenant.^  He  sent  his  three  chief  officers — the  Turtan, 
or  commander-in-chief,  whose  name  seems  to  have  been 
Belemurani ;  ^  the  Rabsaris,  or  chief  eunuch  ;  ^  and  the 

'  Isa.  xxxiii.  8.  ^  Isa.  xx.  i. 

^  Jer.  xxxix  3.  The  meaning  of  the  name  is  not  certain.  Saris, 
in  Hebrew,  is  "  eunuch  " ;  but  the  word  is  not  known  in  Assyrian 
records,  and  we  should  expect  Rabsarisim,  as  in  Dan.  i.  3. 

331 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Rabshakeh,  or  chief  captain^ — from  Lachish  to  Hezekiah, 
with  a  command  of  absolute,  unconditional  surrender, 
to  be  followed  by  deportation.  By  this  conduct 
Sennacherib  violated  his  own  boast  that  he  was  "a 
keeper  of  treaties."  Yet  it  is  not  difficult  to  conjecture 
the  reason  for  his  change  of  plan.  He  had  found  it  no 
easy  matter  to  subdue  even  the  very  minor  fortress  of 
Lachish ;  how  unwise,  then,  would  it  be  for  him  to 
leave  in  his  rear  an  uncaptured  city  so  well  fortified 
as  Jerusalem  !  He  was  advancing  towards  Egypt.  It 
was  obviously  a  strategic  error  to  spare  on  his  route  a 
hostile  and  almost  impregnable  stronghold  as  a  nucleus 
for  the  plans  of  his  enemies.  Moreover,  he  had  heard 
rumours  that  Tirhakah,  the  third  and  last  Ethiopian 
king  of  Egypt,  was  advancing  against  him,  and  it  was 
most  important  to  prevent  any  junction  between  his 
forces  and  those  of  Hezekiah.^  He  could  not  come  in 
person  to  Jerusalem,  for  the  siege  of  Lachish  was  on 
his  hands ;  but  he  detached  from  his  army  a  large 
contingent  under  his  Turtan,  to  win  the  Jews  by 
seductive  promises,  or  to  subdue  Jerusalem  by  force. 
Once  more,  therefore,  the  Holy  City  saw  beneath  her 
often-captured  walls  the  vast  beleaguering  host,  and 
"governors  and  rulers  clothed  most  gorgeously,  horse- 
men riding  upon  horses,  all  of  them  desirable  young 
men."  Isaiah  describes  to  us  how  the  people  crowded 
to   the  house-tops,  half  dead  with  fear,  weeping    and 


'  Rabsak  perhaps  means  chief  officer  or  vizier,  and  is  Hebraised 
into  Rabshakeli.  Prof.  G.  A.  Smith  {Isaiah,  p.  345)  calls  him 
"Sennacherib's  Bismarck."  Rabshakeh,  usually  rendered  "chief 
cupbearer,"  is  an  Aramaised  form  of  Rabsak  (great  chief)  ;  but  we 
know  of  no  chief  cupbearer  at  the  Assyrian  court  (Schrader,  K.  A.  T., 
199  f.). 

-  From  an  Apis-stele  he  seems  to  have  reigned  twenty-six  years 
(B.C.  694-668?). 


xix.  1-37.]  THE   GREAT  DELIVERANCE 


despairing,  and  crying  to  the  hills  to  cover  them,  and 
bereft  of  their  rulers,  who  had  been  bound  by  the 
archers  of  the  enemy  in  their  attempt  to  escape.  They 
gazed  on  the  quiver-bearing  warriors  of  Elam  in  their 
chariots,  and  the  serried  ranks  of  the  shields  of  Kir, 
and  the  cavalry  round  the  gates.  And  he  tells  us  how, 
as  so  often  occurs  at  moments  of  mad  hopelessness, 
many  who  ought  to  have  been  crying  to  God  in  sack- 
cloth and  ashes,  gave  themselves  up,  on  the  contrary, 
to  riot  and  revelry,  eating  flesh,  and  drinking  wine, 
and  saying  :  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink  ;  for  to-morrow  we 
die."^  The  king  alone  had  shown  patience,  calmness, 
and  active  foresight ;  and  he  alone,  by  his  energy  and 
faith,  had  restored  some  confidence  to  the  spirits  of  his 
fainting  people. 

Although  the  city  had  been  refortified  by  the  king, 
and  supplied  with  water,  the  hearts  of  the  inhabitants 
must  have  sunk  within  them  when  they  saw  the 
Assyrian  army  investing  the  walls,  and  when  the  three 
commissioners — taking  their  station  "  by  the  conduit  of 
the  upper  pool  which  is  in  the  highway  of  the  fuller's 
field  " — summoned  the  king  to  hear  the  ultimatum  of 
Sennacherib. 

The  king  did  not  in  person  obey  the  summons ;  but 
he,  too,  sent  out  his  three  chief  officers.  They  were 
Eliakim,  the  son  of  Hilkiah,  who,  as  the  chamberlain 
(al-hab-batth),  was  a  great  prince  (nagid)  ;  Shebna,  who 
had  been  degraded,  perhaps  at  the  instance  of  Isaiah, 
from  the  higher  post,  and  was  now  secretary  (sopher) ; 
and  Joah,  son  of  Asaph,  the  chronicler  {mazktr),  to 
whom  we  probably  owe  the  minute  report  of  the 
memorable  scene.  No  doubt  they  went  forth  in  the 
pomp  of  office — Eliakim  with  his  robe,  and  girdle,  and 
'  Isa.  xxii.  I-13. 


334  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


key.-^  The  Rabshakeh  proved  himself,  indeed,  **  an 
affluent  orator,"  and  evinced  such  famiharity  with  the 
rehgious  politics  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem,  that  this,  in 
conjunction  with  his  perfect  mastery  of  Hebrew,  gives 
colour  to  the  belief  that  he  was  an  apostate  Jew.  He 
began  by  challenging  the  idle  confidence  of  Hezekiah, 
and  his  vain  words  ^  that  he  had  counsel  and  strength 
for  the  war.  Upon  what  did  he  rely  ?  On  the 
broken  and  dangerous  bulrush  of  Egypt  ? "  It  would 
but  pierce  his  hand  !  On  Jehovah  ?  But  Hezekiah 
had  forfeited  his  protection  by  sweeping  away  His 
bamoth  and  His  altars !  Why,  let  Hezekiah  make  a 
wager  ;  *  and  if  Sennacherib  furnished  him  with  two 
thousand  horses,  he  would  be  unable  to  find  riders  for 
them  1  How,  then,  could  he  drive  back  even  the  lowest 
of  the  Assyrian  captains  ?  And  was  not  Jehovah  on 
their  side  ?  It  was  He  who  had  bidden  them  destroy 
Jerusalem  ! 

That  last  bold  assertion,  appealing  as  it  did  to  all 
that  was  erroneous  and  abject  in  the  minds  of  the 
superstitious,  and  backed,  as  it  was,  by  the  undeniable 
force  of  the  envoy's  argument,  smote  so  bitterly  on  the 
ear  of  Hezekiah's  courtiers,  that  they  feared  it  would 
render  negotiation  impossible.  They  humbly  entreated 
the  orator  to  speak  to  "  his  servants  "  in  the  Aramaic 
language  of  Assyria,  which  they  understood,^  and  not 
in  Hebrew,  which  was  the  language  of  all  the  Jews 
who  stood  in  crowds  on  the  walls.     Surely  this  was 


'  Eliakim.     See  Isa.  xxii.  21,  22. 

'■^  "Vain  words"  ;  lit,  "a  word  of  the  lips."     LXX.,  \(yyoi  xe'^^w- 

^  Comp.  Isa.  XXX.  1-7  ;  Ezek.  xxix.  6.  It  seems  to  be  an  over-refine- 
ment to  suppose  that  Sennacherib  refers  to  the  divisions  between 
Egypt  and  Ethiopia. 

^  2  Kings  xviii.  23,  A.V.  :  "  Let  Hezekiah  give  pledges." 

*  Heb.,  Ardmith. 


xix.  1-37.]  THE   GREAT  DELIVERANCE  335 

a  diplomatic  embassy  to  their  king,  not  an  incitement 
to  popular  sedition  ? 

The  answer  of  the  Rabshakeh  was  truly  Assyrian 
in  its  utterly  brutal  and  ruthless  coarseness.  Taking 
up  his  position  directly  in  front  of  the  wall/  and 
ostentatiously  addressing  the  multitude,  he  ignored 
the  representatives  of  Hezekiah.  Who  were  they  ? 
asked  he.  His  master  had  not  sent  him  to  speak  to 
them,  or  to  their  poor  little  puppet  of  a  king,  but  to  the 
people  on  the  wall,  the  foul  garbage  of  whose  sufferings 
of  thirst  and  famine  they  should  share."^  And  to  all 
the  multitude  the  great  king's  ^  message  was  : — Do  not 
be  deceived.  Hezekiah  cannot  save  you.  Jehovah 
will  not  save  you.  Come  to  terms  with  me,  and  give 
me  hostages  and  pledges  and  a  present,  and  then  live 
in  happy  peace  and  plenty  until  I  come  and  deport  you 
to  a  land  as  fair  and  fruitful  as  this.  How  should 
Jehovah  deliver  them  ?  Had  any  of  the  gods  of  the 
nations  delivered  them  out  of  the  hands  of  the  King  of 
Assyria  ?  "  Where  are  the  gods  of  Hamath,  and  of 
Arpad  ?  Where  are  the  gods  of  Sepharvaim,  Hena, 
and  Ivvah  ?  Have  the  gods  of  Samaria  delivered 
Samaria  out  of  my  hand,  that  Jehovah  should  deliver 
Jerusalem  out  of  my  hand  ?  "  ^ 

It  was  a  very  powerful  oration,  but  the  orator  must 
have  been  a  little  disconcerted  to  find  that  it  was 
listened  to  in  absolute  silence.     He  had  disgracefully 

'  2  Kings  xviii.  28,  where  stood  should  be  rendered  came  forward. 

-  The  coarse  expression  is  softened  down  by  the  Chronicler 
(2  Chron.   xxxii.  18). 

^  The  kings  of  Assyria  usually  called  themselves  "great  king, 
mighty  king,  king  of  the  multitude,  king  of  the  land  Assur." 

*  Every  one  must  notice  the  glaring  inconsistency  between  this 
defiance  of  Jehovah  and  the  previous  claim  to  the  possession  of  His 
sanction.     On  Hamath,  Arpad,  etc.,  see  Schrader,  ii.  7-10. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


violated  the  comity  of  international  intercourse  by 
appealing  to  subjects  against  their  lawful  king ;  yet 
from  the  starving  people  there  came  not  a  murmur  of 
reply.  Faithful  to  the  behest  of  their  king  in  the  midst 
of  their  misery  and  terror,  they  answered  not  a  word. 
Agamemnon  is  silent  before  the  coarse  jeers  of  Thersites. 
"  The  sulphurous  flash  dies  in  its  own  smoke,  only 
leaving  a  hateful  stench  behind  it  I "  And  in  this 
attitude  of  the  people  there  was  something  very  sublime 
and  very  instructive.  Dumb,  stricken,  starving,  the 
wretched  Jews  did  not  answer  the  envoy's  taunts  or 
menaces,  because  they  would  not.  They  were  not 
even  in  those  extremities  to  be  seduced  from  their 
allegiance  to  the  king  whom  they  honoured,  though 
the  speaker  had  contemptuously  ignored  his  existence. 
And  though  the  Rabshakeh  had  cut  them  to  the  heart 
with  his  specious  appeals  and  braggart  vaunts,  yet 
"this  clever,  self-confident,  persuasive  personage,  with 
two  languages  on  his  tongue,  and  an  army  at  his  back," 
could  not  shake  the  confidence  in  God,  which,  however 
unreasonable  it  might  seem,  had  been  elevated  into  a 
conviction  by  their  king  and  their  prophet.  The  Rab- 
sak  had  tried  to  seduce  the  people  into  rebellion,  but  he 
had  failed.^  They  were  ready  to  die  for  Hezekiah  with 
the  fidehty  of  despair.  The  mirage  of  sensual  comfort 
in  exiled  servitude  should  not  tempt  them  from  the 
scorched  wilderness  from  which  they  could  still  cry 
out  for  the  living  God. 

Yet  the  Assyrian's  words  had  struck  home  into  the 
hearts  of  his  greatest  hearers,  and  therefore  how  much 
more  into  those  of  the  ignorant  multitudes  1     Eliakim 


'   Isa.  xxxiii.  8 :  "  He  hath  broken  the  covenant,   he  hath  despised 
the  cities,  he  regardeth  no  man." 


xix.  1-37.]  THE   GREAT  DELIVERANCE  337 

and  Shebna  and  Joah  came   to  Hezekiah  with   their 
clothes  rent,  and  told  him  the  words  of  the  Rabshakeh. 
And  when  the  king  heard  it,  when  he  found  that  even 
his  submission  had  been  utterly  in  vain,  he   too  rent 
his  clothes,  and  put  on  sackcloth,^  and  went  into  the 
only  place  where  he  could  hope  to  find  comfort,  even 
into  the  house  of  the  Lord,  which  he  had  cleansed  and 
restored   to  beauty,  although   afterwards  he  had   been 
driven  to   despoil  it.      Needing  an   earthly  counsellor, 
he   sent   Eliakim    and    Shebna   and   the  elders  of  the 
priests  to  Isaiah.     They  were  to  tell  him  the  outcome 
of  this  day  of  trouble,  rebuke,  and  contumely  ;  and  since 
the    Rabshakeh    had    insulted   and    despised    Jehovah, 
they  were  to  urge  the  prophet  to  make  his  appeal  to 
Him,  and  to  pray  for  the  remnant  which  the  Assyrians 
had  left.^ 

The  answer  of  Isaiah  was  a  dauntless  defiance.  If 
others  were  in  despair,  he  was  not  in  the  least  dismayed. 
"  Be  not  afraid  " — such  was  his  message — "  of  the 
mere  words  with  which  the  boastful  boys  of  the  King 
of  Assyria  have  blasphemed  Me.^  Behold,  I  will  put 
a  spirit  in  him,  and  he  shall  hear  a  rumour,^  and  shall 
return  to  his  own  land ;  and  I  will  cause  him  to  fall 
by  the  sword  in  his  own  land." 

Much  crestfallen  at  the  total  and  unexpected  failure 
of  the  embassy,  and  of  his  own  heart-shaking  appeals, 
the  Rabshakeh  returned.  But  meanwhile  Sennacherib 
had  taken   Lachish,   and  marched  to  Libnah  (Tel-es- 

'   I  Kings  XX.  32 ;  2  Kings  vi.  30. 

-  Sennacherib  had  already  carried  off  vast  numbers.  See  Isa. 
xxiv.  I-12;  Demetrius  fl/>.  Clem.  Alex.,  Strom.,  i.  403. 

^  Isaiah's  phrase,  na'ari  melek,  "  lads  of  the  king,"  is  contemptuous. 
LXX.,  TraiSdpta. 

'  Heb.,  ruach ;  LXX.,  didw^i  cv  avf(^  Trveviia.  Theodoret  calls  this 
"  spirit "  cowardice  (rrjv  onXiaf  ol/xai.  StjXoO/'). 

22 


338  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Safia),  which  he  was  now  besieging.^  There  it  was- 
that  he  heard  the  "rumour"  of  which  Isaiah  had 
spoken — the  report,  namely,  that  Tirhakah,  the  third 
king  of  the  Ethiopian  dynasty  of  Pharaohs,'^  was 
advancing  in  person  to  meet  him.  This  was  B.C.  70 1, 
and  it  is  perhaps  only  by  anticipation  that  Tirhakah 
is  called  "  King  "  of  Ethiopia.  He  was  only  the  general 
and  representative  of  his  father  Shabatok,  if  (as  some 
think)  he  did  not  succeed  to  the  throne  till  698. 

It  was  impossible  for  Sennacherib  under  these  circum- 
stances to  return  northwards  to  Jerusalem,  of  which 
the  siege  would  inevitably  occupy  some  time.  But 
he  sent  a  menacing  letter,^  reminding  Hezekiah  that 
neither  king  nor  god  had  ever  yet  saved  any  city  from 
the  hands  of  the  Assyrian  destroyers.  Where  were 
the  kings,  he  asked  again,  of  Hamath,  Arpad,  Sephar- 
vaim,  Hena,  Ivvah  ?  What  had  the  gods  of  Gozan, 
Haran,  Rezeph,  and  the  children  of  Eden  in  Telassar 
done  to  save  their  countries  from  Sennacherib's  ances- 
tors, when  they  had  laid  them  under  the  ban  ?* 


'  Libnah  means  "whiteness."  Dean  Stanley  (5.  and  P.,  207,  258) 
identifies  it  with  a  white-faced  hill,  the  Blanchegarde  of  the  Cru- 
saders. 

-  The  dates  usually  given  are  Sabaco,  b.c.  725-712;  Shabatok, 
712-698;  Tirhakah,  698-672.  Manetho,  Tci/saxos ;  Strabo,  TepdKWi',  6 
Al6iil}\j/.  He  was  third  king  of  the  twenty-fifth  dynasty,  and  the 
greatest  of  the  Egyptian  sovereigns  who  came  from  Ethiopia.  He 
reigned  gloriously  for  many  years.  We  see  his  figure  at  Mcdinet 
Abou,  smiting  ten  captive  princes  with  an  iron  mace;,  but  he  was 
finally  defeated  by  Esarhaddon,  and  in  668  by  Assurbanipal  at 
Karbanit  (Canopus).  He  is  called  by  his  conqueror  "Tar-ku-u,  King 
of  Egypt  and  Cush  "  (Schrader,  K.  A.  T.,  336  ft'.). 

^  Heb.,  Sepharim)  Vulg.,  litterce;  2  Chron.  xxxii.  17.  The  more 
ordinary  term  for  a  letter  is  iggereth. 

^  2  Kings  xix.  12  (Heb.);  Ezck.  xxvii.  23.  On  these  places  sec 
Schrader,  ii.   11,   12.     It  had   been  indeed  Sennacherib's  work  "to 


xix.  1-37.]  THE   GREAT  DELIVERANCE  339 

Again  the  pious  king  found  comfort  in  God's  Temple. 
Taking  with  him  the  scornful  and  blasphemous  letter, 
he  spread  it  out  before  Jehovah  in  the  Temple  with 
childlike  simplicity,  that  Jehovah  might  read  its  insults 
and  be  moved  by  this  dumb  appeal,^  Then  both  he 
and  Isaiah  cried  mightily  to  God,  "  who  sitteth  above 
the  cherubim,"  admitting  the  truth  of  what  Sennacherib 
had  said,  and  that  the  kings  of  Assyria  had  destroyed 
the  nations,  and  burnt  their  vain  gods  in  the  fire. 
But  of  what  significance  was  that  ?  Those  wei^e  but 
gods  of  wood  and  stone,  the  works  of  men's  hands. ^ 
But  Jehovah  was  the  One,  the  True,  the  Living  God. 
Would  He  not  manifest  among  the  nations  His  eternal 
supremac}^  ? 

And  as  the  king  prayed  the  word  of  Jehovah 
came  to  Isaiah,  and  he  sent  to  Hezekiah  this  glorious 
message  about  Sennacherib  : — 

"The  virgin,  the  daughter  of  Zion,  hath  despised 
thee,  and  laughed  thee  to  scorn.  The  daughter  of 
Jerusalem  hath  shaken  her  head  at  thee."  ^ 

reduce  fenced  cities  to  ruinous  heaps."  He  boasts  on  the  Bellino 
Cylinder,  "Their  smaller  towns  without  number  I  overthrew,  and 
reduced  them  to  heaps  of  rubbish"  (Records  of  the  Past,  i.  27). 

'  "It  is  a  prayer  without  words,  a  prayer  in  action,  which  then 
passes  into  a  spoken  prayer"  (Delitzsch). 

'"'  The  Assyrians  are  sometimes  represented  in  their  monuments 
as  hewing  idols  to  pieces  in  honour  of  their  god  Assur  (Botta, 
Monuni.,  pi.   I40). 

^  LXX.,  Kiveiv  TTjv  Ke<pa\rii>,  "a  gesture  of  scorn"  (Psalm  xxii.  7, 
cix.  25 ;  Lam.  ii.  15).  With  the  vaunts  of  Sennacherib  compare 
Claudian,  De  bell.  Geth.,  526-532. 

"  Cum  cesserit  omnis 
Obsequiis  natura  meis  ?     Subsidere  nostris 
Sub  pedibus  montes,  arescere  vidimtts  amn<m  .  .  . 
Fregi  Alpes,  galeis  Padum  viclrict'bus  hausi." 

Keu,  ad  loc. 


34°  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


The  blasphemies,  the  vaunts,  the  menacing  self-con- 
fidence of  Sennacherib,  were  his  surest  condemnation. 
Did  he  count  God  a  cypher  ?  It  was  to  God  alone 
that  he  owed  the  fearful  power  which  had  made  the 
nations  like  grass  upon  the  housetops,  like  blasted  corn, 
before  him.  And  because  God  knew  his  rage  and 
tumult,  God  would  treat  him  as  Sargon  his  father  had 
treated  conquered  kings  : — 

"  I  will  put  My  hook  in  thy  nose,  and  My  bridle  in 
thy  lips.^  And  1  will  turn  thee  back  by  the  way  by 
which  thou  earnest."  He  had  thought  to  conquer 
Egypt  :  '^  instead  of  that  he  should  be  driven  back  in 
confusion  to  Assyria. 

It  was  but  a  plainer  enunciation  of  the  truths  which 
Isaiah  had  again  and  again  intimated  in  enigma  and 
parable.  It  was  the  fearless  security  of  Judah's  lion  ; 
the  safety  of  the  rock  amid  the  deluge  ;  the  safety  of 
the  poor  brood  under  the  wings  of  the  Divine  protec- 
tion from  "  the  great  Birds'-nester  of  the  world  "  ;  the 
crashing  downfall  of  the  lopped  Lebanonian  cedar, 
while  the  green  shoot  and  tender  branch  out  of  the 
withered  stump  of  Jesse  should  take  root  downward 
and  bear  fruit  upward.^ 

And  the  sign  was  given  to  Hezekiah  that  this  should 
be  so.*     This  year  there  should  be  no  harvest,  except 

'  Comp.  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  ii  (Heb.) ;  Psalm  xxxix.  I  ;  Isa.  xxx.  28; 
Ezek.  xxxviii.  4,  xxix,  4.  The  Assyrians  drove  a  ring  through  the 
lower  lip,  the  Babylonians  through  the  nose.  See  Rawlinson,  Ancient 
Monarchies,  ii.  314,  iii.  436. 

■•*  2  Kings  xix.  33.  "  The  river  of  Egypt "  {Nachal-ha-Misraim) 
is  the  "Wady-el-Arish. 

'  Isa.  x.  33,  34,  xi.  I,  xiv.  8;  Stanley,  Lectures,  ii.  410. 

■*  nii^.  A  sign  "is  a  thing,  an  event,  or  an  action  intended  as  a 
pledge  of  the  Divine  certainty  of  another.  Sometimes  it  is  a  miracle 
(Gen.  iv.  15,  Heb.),  or  a  permanent  symbol  (Isa.  viii.  18,  xx.  3, 
xxxvii.  30;  Jer.  xliv.  29)  "  (Dclitzsch). 


xixM-37.T  THE   GREAT  DELIVERANCE  341 

such  as  was  spontaneous ;  for  in  the  stress  of  Assyrian 
invasion  sowing  and  reaping  had  been  impossible. 
The  next  year  the  harvest  should  only  be  from  this 
accidental  produce.  But  in  the  third  year,  secure  at 
last,  they  should  sow  and  reap,  and  plant  vineyards 
and  eat  the  fruit  thereof^  And  though  but  a  remnant 
of  the  people  was  left  out  of  the  recent  captivity,  they 
should  grow  and  flourish,  and  Jerusalem  should  see 
the  besieging  host  of  Assyria  no  more  for  ever ;  for 
Jehovah  would  defend  the  city  for  His  own  sake,  and 
for  His  servant  David's  sake. 

Thereafter  occurred  the  great  deliverance.^  In  some 
way — we  know  not  and  never  shall  know  how — by 
a  blast  of  the  simoom,  or  sudden  outburst  of  plague, 
or  furious  panic,  or  sudden  assault,  or  by  some  other 
calamity,^  the  host  of  Assyria  was  smitten  in  the  camp, 
and  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand,  including 
their  chief  leaders,  perished.  The  historian,  in  a 
manner  habitual  to  pious  Semitic  writers,  attributes 
the  devastation  to  the  direct  action  of  "  the  angel  of 
the  Lord  "  ;  *  but  as  Dr.  Johnson  said  long  ago,  "  We 
are  certainly  not  to  suppose  that  the  angel  went  about 

'  The  first  year  they  should  eat  saplnach  (LXX.,  avrofiaTa ;  Vulg., 
quce  repereris) ;  the  second  year,  sach'ish  (LXX.,  rd  avareWovra  ;  Vulg., 
qttce  sponte  nascuntur). 

^  2  Kings  xix.  35  :  "  It  came  to  pass  that  night."  Isaiah  only  has 
"  then  "  ;  Josephus,  Kara  t7]v  wpdrrju  tt/s  woKiopKias  vijKTa.  Menochius 
understands  it  "in  celebri  ilia  nocte."  The  LXX.  omits  "that,"  and 
simply  says  "in  the  night"  {vvkt6s).  Comp.  Psalm  xlvi.  5  (Heb.) ; 
Isa.  xvii,  14. 

^  Josephus,  followed  by  many  moderns,  and  even  bj'  Keil,  suggests 
a  plague.  The  malaria  of  the  Pelusiotic  marshes  easily  breeds 
pestilence.  The  "  ntaleak  Jehovah  "  is  "  the  destroyer  "  {mashchiih) 
(Exod.  xii.  23;  2  Sam.  xxiv.  16,  Comp.  Justin.,  xix.  11  ;  Diod.  Sic, 
xix,  434. 

*  Comp,  2  Sam.  xxiv.  15,  16. 


342  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

with  a  sword  in  his  hand,  striking  them  one  by  one, 
but  that  some  powerful  natural  agent  was  employed."  ^ 

The  Forty-Sixth  Psalm  is  generally  regarded  as  the 
Te  Deum  sung  in  the  Temple  over  this  deliverance, 
and  its  opening  words,  "  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength," 
are  inscribed  over  the  cathedral  of  St.  Sophia  at  Con- 
stantinople. 

It  is  usually  supposed  that  this  overwhelming  dis- 
aster happened  to  the  host  of  Assyria  before  JerMsalem. 
This,  however,  is  not  stated ;  and  as  the  capture  of 
Lachish  was  an  urgent  necessity,  it  is  probable  that 
the  Turtan  led  back  the  forces  which  had  accompanied 
him,  and  took  them  afterwards  to  Libnah.^  Yet,  since 
Libnah  was  but  ten  miles  from  Jerusalem,  the  Jews 
could  not  feel  safe  for  a  day  until  the  mighty  news 
came  that  the 

"Angel  of  God  spread  his  wings  on  the  blast, 
And  breathed  in  the  face  of  the  foe  as  he  passed, 
And  the  eyes  of  the  sleepers  waxed  heavy  and  chill. 
And  their  breasts  but  once   heaved,   and   for  ever  grew   still." 

When  the  catastrophe  which  had  happened  to  the 
main  army  and  the  flight  of  Sennacherib  became 
known,  the  scattered  forces  would  melt  away. 

All  the  Assyrians  who  escaped  were  now  hurrying 
back  ^  to  Nineveh  with  their  foiled  king.     Sennacherib 

'  The  Babyl.  Talmud  and  some  Targums,  followed  by  Vitringa,  etc., 
attribute  to  it  storms  of  lightning  ;  Prideaux,  Heine,  and  Faber,  to  the 
simoom  ;  R.  Jose,  Ussher,  etc.,  to  a  nocturnal  attack  of  Tirhakah. 

^  It  is,  however,  perfectly  possible  that  a  contingent  was  left  on 
guard.  "  Where  is  the  [past]  terror?  Where  is  he  that  rated  the 
tribute  ?  Where  is  he  that  received  it  ?  "  (Isa.  xxxiii.  l8).  "  At  the 
noise  of  the  tumult  the  people  flee"  (Isa.  xxxiii.  3)  ;  "At  Thy  rebuke, 
O  God  of  Jacob,  both  chariot  and  horse  are  cast  into  a  dead  sleep  " 
(Psalm  Ixxvi.  6).     Comp.  Psalm  xlviii.  4-6. 

'  This  is  the  meaning  of  "  he  departed,  and  went,  and  returned." 


xix.  1-37.]  THE   GREAT  DELIVERANCE  343 


seems  to  have  occupied  himself  in  the  north,  except 
so  far  as  he  was  forced  to  fight  fiercely  against  his 
own  rebel  subjects.  He  never  recovered  this  complete 
humiliation.  He  never  again  came  southwards.  He 
survived  the  catastrophe  for  seventeen  or  twenty  years/ 
and  fought  five  or  six  campaigns  ;  but  at  the  end  of 
that  period,  while  he  was  worshipping  in  the  house  of 
Nisroch  or  Assarac  (Assur),  his  god,^  he  was  murdered 
by  his  two  sons  Adrammelech  (Adar-malik — "  Adar  is 
king")  and  Sharezer  (Nergal-sarussar — "Nergal  protect 
the  king  "),^  who  envied  him  his  throne.  They  escaped 
into  the  land  of  Ararat,  but  were  defeated  and  killed 
by  their  younger  brother  Esarhaddon  (Assur-akh-iddin 
— "Assur  bestowed  a  'brother'")  at  the  battle  of 
Hani-Rabbat,  on  the  Upper  Euphrates.  He  succeeded 
Sennacherib,  and  ultimately  avenged  on  Egypt  his 
father's  overwhelming  disaster.  He  is  perhaps  the 
"  cruel  lord "  of  Isa.  xix.  4,  and  it  is  not  unnatural 
that  he  should  have  prevailed  against  his  parricidal 
brothers,  for  we  are  told  that  in  a  previous  battle  at 
Melitene  he  had  shown  such  prowess  that  the  troops 
then  and  there  proclaimed  him  King  of  Assyria  with 
shouts  of  "This  is  our  king."*     He  reigned  from  B.C. 

'  Not,  only  fifty-five  days,  as  we  read  in  Tobit  i.  21. 

■■*  Jos.,  Antt.,  X.  i.  5 :  "  In  his  own  temple  to  Araske  " ;  LXX., 
'Acrapdx  ',  Isa.  xxxvii.  38.  One  guess  connects  the  word  with  Nesher, 
"the  eagle-god,"  often  seen  on  the  Assyrian  bas-reliefs.  Lenormant 
calls  him  "  ihe  god  of  human  destiny." 

^  Alex.  Polyhistor  ap.  Euseb,,  i.  27 ;  Kimchi  ad  2  Kings  xix.  37. 
Buxtorf  {Bibl.  Rabbinic.)  says  that  Sennacherib  entered  the  temple 
to  ask  his  counsellors  why  Jehovah  favoured  Israel.  Being  told  that 
it  was  because  of  Abraham's  willingness  to  offer  Isaac,  he  said, 
"Then  I  will  offer  m}'  two  sons."  Rashi  adds  that  they  slew  him 
to  save  their  own  lives.  (See  Schenkel  and  Riehm,  s.v.  "  .Sanherib  " 
— both  articles  by  Schrader). 

*  See  Schrader   in    Riehm's    Handworterbuch,    s.vv.    "Sanherib," 


344  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OE  KINGS 


681-668,  and  in  his  reign  Assyria  culminated  before 
her  last  decline.^  He  was  the  builder  of  the  temple 
at  Nimrud,  and  erected  thirty  other  temples.  Babylon 
and  Nineveh  were  both  his  capitals,^  and  he  had 
previously  been  viceroy  of  the  former. 

The  glorious  deliverance  in  which  the  faith  and 
courage  of  the  King  of  Judah  had  had  their  share 
naturally  increased  the  prosperity  and  prestige  of 
Hezekiah,  and  lifted  the  authority  of  Isaiah  to  an  un- 
precedented height.  Hezekiah  probably  did  not  long 
survive  the  uplifting  of  this  dark  cloud,  but  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life  "he  was ■  magnified  in  the  sight 
of  all  nations."  ^  When  he  died,  all  Judah  and  Jerusalem 
did  him  honour,  and  gave  him  a  splendid  burial. 
Apparently  the  old  tombs  of  the  kings — the  catacomb 
constructed  by  David  and  Solomon — had  in  the  course 
of  two  and  a  half  centuries  become  full,  so  that  he  had 
to  be  buried  '*  in  the  ascent  of  the  sepulchres,"  perhaps 
some  niche  higher  than  the  other  graves  of  the  catacomb, 
which  was  henceforth  disused  for  the  burial  of  the 
kings  of  Judah.  We  have  had  occasion  to  observe  the 
many  particulars  in  which  his  reign  was  memorable, 
and  to  his  other  services  must  be  added  the  literary 
activity  to  which  we  owe  the  collection  and  editing,  by 
his  scribes,  of  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon.  His  reign 
had  practically  witnessed  the  institution  of  the  faithful 

"  Asarhaddon."  Esarhaddon,  judging  from  what  is  called  "  Senna- 
cherib's will,"  in  which  the  king  leaves  him  splendid  presents,  seems 
to  have  been  a  favourite  of  his  father  (^Records  of  the  Past,  i.  136).  He 
says  that  on  hearing  of  his  father's  murder,  "  I  was  wrathful  as  a  lion, 
and  my  soul  raged  within  me,  and  I  lifted  my  hands  to  the  great  gods 
to  assume  the  sovereignty  of  my  father's  house."     See  Appendix  I. 

'  The  Book  of  Tobit  (i.  21)  calls  him  Sarchedonas. 

^  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  II. 

*  2  Chron.  xxxii.  23. 


xix.  1-37.]  THE   GREAT  DELIVERANCE  345 

Jewish  Church  under  the  influence  of  his  great  prophetic 
guide.^ 

The  question  whether  the  portent  of  the  destruction 
of  the  Assyrian  was  identical  with  that  related  by 
Herodotus  has  never  been  finally  answered.  Herodotus 
places  the  scene  of  the  disaster  at  Pelusium,^  and  tells 
this  story : — Sennacherib,  King  of  the  Arabs  and 
Assyrians,  invaded  Egypt.  Its  king,  Sethos,  of  the 
Tanite  dynasty,  in  despair  entered  the  temple  of  his  god 
Pthah  (or  Vulcan),  and  wept.^  The  god  appeared  to 
him  with  promises  of  deliverance,  and  Sethos  marched 
to  meet  Sennacherib  with  an  army  of  poor  artisans, 
since  he  was  a  priest,  and  the  caste  of  warriors  was 
ill-affected  to  him.  In  the  night  the  god  Pthah  sent 
hosts  of  field-mice,  which  gnawed  the  quivers,  bow- 
strings, and  shield-straps  of  the  Assyrians,  who  con- 
sequently fled,  and  were  massacred.  An  image  of  the 
priest-king  with  a  mouse  in  his  hand  stood  in  the 
temple  of  Pthah,  and  on  its  pedestal  the  inscription, 
which  might  also  point  the  moral  of  the  Biblical  nar- 
rative, 'S<?  efxe  Tt9  opewv  evcre^T]';  earco  ("Let  him  who 
looks  on  me  be  pious ").  Josephus  seems  so  far  to 
accept  this  version  that  he  refers  to  Herodotus,  and 
sa3'-s  that  Sennacherib's  failure  was  the  result  of  a 
frustration  in  Egypt.'*  The  mouse  in  the  hand  of  the 
statue  probably  originated  the  details  of  the  legend ; 
but  according  to  Horapollion   it  was  the  hieroglyphic 

'  Wellhausen,  p.  116. 

^  Herod.,  ii.  14.  "Sin"  (Tanis?),  Ezek.  xxx.  15.  It  lay  in  the 
midst  of  morasses,  and  some  attribute  the  catastrophe  to  the  malaria. 

^  The  deliverance  is  really  connected  with  Tirhakah,  whose  deeds 
are  recorded  in  a  temple  at  Medinet  Habou,  but  the  jealousy  of  the 
Memphites  attributed  it  to  the  piety  of  Sethos.  See  G.  W.  Wilkin- 
son, Ancient  Egyptians,  i.  141;  Rawlinson,  Herodotus,  i.  394. 

*  Antt.,  X.  i.  1-5. 


346  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

sign  of  destruction  by  plague.^  Bahr  says  that  it  was 
also  the  symbol  of  Mars.  Readers  of  Homer  will 
remember  the  title  Apollo  Sminthens  ("  the  destroyer  of 
mice  "),  and  the  story  that  mice  were  worshipped  in  the 
Troas  because  they  gnawed  the  bow-strings  of  the 
enemy. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  mode  of  the  retri- 
bution, or  the  scene  in  which  it  took  place,  it  is  certainly 
historical.  The  outlines  of  the  narrative  in  the  sacred 
historian  are  identical  with  those  in  the  Assyrian 
records.  The  annals  of  Sennacherib  tell  us  the  four 
initial  stages  of  the  great  campaign  in  the  conquest  of 
Phoenicia,  of  Askelon,  and  of  Ekron,  the  defeat  of  the 
Egyptians  at  Altaqu,  and  the  earlier  hostilities  against 
Hezekiah.  The  Book  of  Kings  concentrates  our  atten- 
tion on  the  details  of  the  close  of  the  invasion.  On 
this  point,  whether  from  accident,  or  because  Senna- 
cherib did  not  choose  to  register  his  own  calamity, 
and  the  frustration  of  the  gods  of  whose  protection  he 
boasted,  the  Assyrian  records  are  silent.  Baffled  con- 
querors rarely  dwell  on  their  own  disasters.  It  is  not 
in  the  despatches  of  Napoleon  that  we  shall  find  the 
true  story  of  his  abandonment  of  Syria,  of  the  defeats 
of  his  forces  in  Spain,  or  of  his  retreat  from  Moscow.'^ 

The  great  lesson  of  the  whole  story  is  the  reward 
and  the  triumph  of  indomitable  faith.  Faith  may  still 
burn  with  a  steady  flame  when  the  difficulties  around 
it  seem  insuperable,  when  all  refutation  of  the  attacks 


'  Comp.  I  Sam.  v.,  vi.,  where,  after  a  plague,  the  Philistines  sent  an 
expiation  of  five  golden  mice. 

■■^  We  may  add  that  even  the  Chronicler  drops  a  veil  over  Senna- 
cherib's actual  capture  of  fortresses  in  Judah  ("  he  thought  to  win 
them  for  himself,"  2  Chron.  xxxii.  i :  comp.  2  Kings  xviii.  13; 
Isa.  xxxvi.   1). 


xix.  1-37.]  THE   GREAT  DELIVERANCE  347 

of  its  enemies  seems  to  be  impossible,  when  Hope  itself 
has  sunk  into  white  ashes  in  which  scarcely  a  gleam  of 
heat  remains.  Isaiah  had  nothing  to  rely  upon ;  he 
had  no  argument  wherewith  to  furnish  Hezekiah  beyond 
the  bare  and  apparently  unmeaning  promise,  "Jehovah 
is  our  Judge  ;  Jehovah  is  our  Lawgiver  ;  Jehovah  is 
our  King.  He  will  save  us."  It  was  a  magnificent 
vindication  of  his  inspired  conviction,  when  all  turned 
out — not  indeed  in  minute  details,  but  in  every  essential 
fact — exactly  as  he  had  prophesied  from  the  first.  Even 
in  B.C.  740  he  had  declared  that  the  sins  of  Judah 
deserved  and  would  receive  condign  punishment,  though 
a  remnant  should  be  saved.^  That  the  retribution 
would  come  from  some  foreign  enemy— Assyria  or 
Egypt,  or  both — he  felt  sure.  Jehovah  would  hiss  for 
the  fly  in  the  uttermost  canals  of  Egypt,  and  for  the 
bee  that  is  in  the  land  of  Assyria,  and  both  should 
swarm  in  the  crevices  of  the  rocks,  and  over  the 
pastures.^  Later  on  in  732,  in  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  he 
pointed  to  Assyria,^  as  the  destined  scourge,  and  he 
realised  this  still  more  clearly  in  725  and  721,  when 
Shalmaneser  and  Sargon  were  tearing  Samaria  to 
pieces.*  Contrary,  indeed,  to  his  expectation,  the  Assy- 
rians did  not  then  destroy  Jerusalem,  or  even  formally 
besiege  it.  The  revolt  from  Assyria,  the  reliance  on 
Egypt,  did  not  for  a  moment  blind  his-  judgment  or 
alter  his  conviction  ;  and  in  701  it  came  true  when 
Sennacherib  was  on  the  march  for  Palestine.^  Yet  he 
never  wavered  in  the  apparently  impossible  conclusion, 
that,  in  spite  of  all,  in  spite  even  of  his  own  darker 
prophecies  (xxxii.  14),  Jerusalem  shall  in  some  Divine 

'  Isa.  vi.    11-13.  *  Isa.  viii.,  xxviii.  I-15,  X.  28-34. 

^  Isa.  V,   26-30.  s  Isa.  xiv.  29-32,  xxix.,  xxx. 

^  Isa.  vii.   18. 


348  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


manner  be  saved.^  The  deliverance  would  be,  as  he 
declared  from  first  to  last,  the  work  of  Jehovah,  not  the 
work  of  man,^  and  because  of  it  Sennacherib  would 
return  to  his  own  land  and  perish  there. ^  The  details 
might  be  dim  and  wavering ;  the  result  was  certain. 
Isaiah  was  no  thaumaturge,  no  peeping  wizard,  no  mut- 
tering necromancer,  no  monthly  prognosticator.*  He 
was  a  prophet — that  is,  an  inspired  moral  and  spiritual 
teacher  who  was  able  to  foresee  and  to  foretell,  not  in 
their  details,  but  in  their  broad  outlines,  the  events  yet 
future,  because  he  was  enabled  to  read  them  by  the  eye 
of  faith  ere  they  had  yet  occurred.  His  faith  convinced 
him  that  predictions  founded  on  eternal  principles  have 
all  the  certainty  of  a  law,  and  that  God's  dealings  with 
men  and  nations  in  the  future  can  be  seen  in  the  light 
of  experience  derived  from  the  history  of  the  past. 
Courage,  zeal,  unquenchable  hope,  indomitable  resolu- 
tion, spring  from  that  perfect  confidence  in  God  which 
is  the  natural  reward  of  innocence  and  faithfulness. 
Isaiah  trusted  in  God,  and  he  knew  that  they  who  put 
their  trust  in  Him  can  never  be  confounded. 

No  event  produced  a  deeper  impression  on  the  minds 
of  the  Jews,  though  that  impression  was  soon  after- 
wards, for  a  time,  obliterated.  Naturally,  it  elevated 
the  authority  of  Isaiah  into  unquestioned  pre-eminence 
during  the  reign  of  Hezekiah.  It  has  left  its  echo,  not 
only  in  his  own  triumphant  paeans,  but  also  in  the  Forty- 
Sixth  Psalm,  which  the  Septuagint  calls  *'  An  ode  to  the 
Assyrian,"  and  perhaps  also  in  the  Seventy-Fifth  and 

'  Isa.  i.  19,  20. 

*  Isa.  X.  33,  xxix.  5-8,  xxx.  20-26,  30-33. 

"  Isa.  xxxviii.  6.     See  for  this  paragraph  an  admirable  chapter  in 
Prof.  Smith's  Isaiah,  pp.  368-374. 
■*  Isa.  xlvii.  13. 


xix.  1-37.]  THE   GREAT  DELIVERANCE  349 

Seventy-Sixth  Psalms.  In  the  minds  of  all  faithful 
Israelites  it  established  for  ever  the  conviction  that  God 
had  chosen  Judah  for  Himself,  and  Israel  for  His  own 
possession  ;  that  God  was  in  the  midst  of  Zion,  and 
she  should  not  be  confounded  :  "  God  shall  help  her,  and 
that  right  early."  And  it  contains  a  noble  and  inspiring 
lesson  for  all  time.  "  It  is  not  without  reason,"  says 
Dean  Stanley,  **  that  in  the  Churches  of  Moscow  the 
exultation  over  the  fall  of  Sennacherib  is  still  read  on 
the  anniversary  of  the  retreat  of  the  French  from 
Russia,  or  that  Arnold,  in  his  lectures  on  Modern 
History,  in  the  impressive  passage  in  which  he  dwells 
on  that  great  catastrophe,  declared  that  for  the  memor- 
able night  of  the  frost  in  which  twenty  thousand  horses 
perished,  and  the  strength  of  the  French  army  was 
utterly  broken,  he  knew  of  no  language  so  well  fitted 
to  describe  it  as  the  words  in  which  Isaiah  de- 
scribed the  advance  and  destruction  of  the  hosts  of 
Sennacherib."  ^ 

They  had  been  brought  face  to  face,  the  two  kings — 
Sennacherib  and  Hezekiah.  One  was  the  impious 
boaster  who  relied  on  his  own  strength,  and  on  the 
mighty  host  which  dried  up  rivers  with  their  trampling 
march — the  worldling  who  thought  to  lord  it  over  the 
affrighted  globe  ;  the  other  was  the  poor  kinglet  of  the 
Chosen  People,  with  his  one  city  and  his  enfeebled 
people,  and  his  dominion  not  so  large  as  one  of  the 
smallest  English  counties.  But  "  one  with  God  is 
irresistible,"  "  one  with  God  is  always  in  a  majority." 
The  poor,  weak  prince  triumphs  over  the  terrific  con- 
queror, because  he  trusts  in  Him  to  whom  world- 
desolating  tyrants  are   but  as  the  small  dust  of  the 

'  Stanley,  Lectures,  ii.  531. 


350  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


balance,  and  who  "  taketh  up  the  isles  as  a  very  little 
thing."  1 

As  Assyria  now  vanishes  almost  entirely  from  the 
history  of  the  Chosen  People,  we  may  here  recall  with 
delight  one  large  and  loving  prophecy,  to  show  that 
the  Hebrews  were  sometimes  uplifted  by  the  power 
of  inspiration  above  the  narrowness  of  a  bigoted  and 
exclusive  spirit.  Desperately  as  Israel  had  suffered, 
both  from  Egypt  and  Assyria,  Isaiah  could  still  utter 
the  glowing  Messianic  Prophecy  which  included  the 
Gentiles  in  the  privileges  of  the  Golden  Age  to  come. 
He  foretold  that — 

"  In  that  day  shall  Israel  be  the  third  with  Egypt 
and  Assyria,  as  a  blessing  in  the  midst  of  the  land  : 
whom  the  Lord  of  hosts  shall  bless,  saying,  Blessed 
be  Egypt  My  people,  and  Assyria  the  work  of  My 
hands,  and  Israel  Mine  inheritance,"  ^ 

"That  strain  I  heard  was  of  a  higher  mood!" 


King  Hezekiah  can  have  no  finer  panegyric  than 
that  of  the  son  of  Sirach :  "Even  the  kings  of  Judah 
failed,  for  they  forsook  the  law  of  the  Most  High  :  all 
except  David,  and  Ezekias,  and  Josias  failed."  ^ 

'  Isa.  xl.  15.  '■'  Isa.  xix.  24,  25.  *  Ecclus.  xlix.  4. 


CHAPTER    XXIX 

MANASSEH 
B.C.  686 — 641 

2  Kings  xxi.   i — 16 

"  Shall  the  throne  of  wickedness  have  fellowship  with  Thee, 
That  frameth  mischief  by  statute  ? 

They  gather  themselves  in  troops  against  the  soul  of  the  righteous, 
And  condemn  the  innocent  blood."— Psalm  xciv.  20,  21. 

"Though  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly,  yet  they  grind  exceeding 
small ; 
Though  with  patience   long   He  waiteth,   with    exactness   grinds 
He  all." 

MANASSEH  was  born  after  Hezekiah's  recovery 
from  his  terrible  illness.  He  was  but  twelve 
years  old  when  he  began  to  reign.  Of  his  mother 
Hephzibah  we  know  nothing,  nor  of  the  Zechariah  who 
was  her  father;  but  perhaps  Isaiah  in  one  passage 
(Ixii.  4)  may  refer  to  her  name,  **  My  delight  is  in 
her."  ^  The  son  of  Hezekiah  and  Hephzibah  was  the 
worst  of  all  the  kings  of  Judah,  and  had  the  longest 
reign. 

The  tender  age  of  Manasseh  when  he  came  to  the 
throne    may   perhaps    account    for   the    fact    that    the 

'  One  legend  says  that  Hephzibah  was  a  daughter  of  Isaiah.     Not 
so  Josephus  {Antt.,  X.  iii.  l). 

351 


352  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

"  forgetfulness "  which  his  name  implied  ^  was  not  a 
forgetting  of  other  sorrows,  but  of  all  that  was  noble 
and  righteous  in  the  attempted  reformation  which  had 
been  the  main  religious  work  of  his  father's  life.  In 
Judah,  as  in  England,  a  king  was  not  supposed  to  be  of 
age  until  he  was  eighteen.^  For  six  years  Manasseh 
must  have  been  to  a  great  extent  under  the  influence 
of  his  regents  and  counsellors. 

There  always  existed  in  Jerusalem,  even  in  the  best 
times,  a  heathenising  party,  and  it  was,  unfortunately, 
composed  of  princes  and  aristocrats  who  could  bring 
strong  influence  to  bear  upon  the  king.^  They  did  not 
deny  Jehovah,  but  they  did  not  recognise  Him  as  the 
sole  or  the  supreme  God  of  heaven  and  earth.  To 
them  He  was  the  local  deity  of  Israel  and  Judah.  But 
there  were  other  gods,  the  gods  of  the  nations,  and 
their  aim  always  was  to  recognise  the  existence  of 
these  deities  and  to  pay  homage  to  their  power.  If 
their  favour  could  not  be  purchased  except  by  their 
immediate  votaries,  at  least  their  anger  might  be 
averted.  These  politicians  advocated  a  fatal  and  incon- 
gruous syncretism,  or  at  least  an  unlimited  tolerance 
for  heathen  idols,  for  which  they  could,  unhappily,  quote 
the  precepts  and  example  of  the  Wise  King,  Solomon. 
If  any  one  questioned  their  views  as  a  dangerous 
idolatry,  and  an  insult  to 

"  Jehovah  thundering  out  of  Zion,  throned 
Between  the  cherubim," 

'  See  Gen.  xli.  51.  His  name  may  have  referred  to  the  new  union 
between  the  Northern  and  Southern  Kingdoms.  Comp.  2  Chron. 
XXX.  6,  xxxi.  I. 

*  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  1-3. 

*  See  Zeph.  i.  8.  Comp.  2  Cliron.  xxiv.  17;  Isa.  xxviii.  14;  Jer. 
V.  5,  etc. 


xxi.  1-16.]  MANASSEH  353 


they  had  but  to  point  from  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  to 
the  confronting  summit  of  Olivet,  where  still  remained 
the  shrines  which  the  son  of  David  had  erected  three 
centuries  earlier  to  Chemosh,  and  Milcom,  and  Ash- 
toreth,  who,  since  his  day,  had  always  found,  even 
in  Jerusalem,  some  worshippers,  open  or  secret,  to 
acknowledge  their  divinity. 

And  these  worldlings,  in  their  tolerance  for  the 
intolerable,  could  always  appeal  to  two  powerful 
instincts  of  man's  fallen  nature — sensuality  and  fear — 
"lust  hard  by  hate."  There  was  something  in  the 
worship  of  Baal-Peor  and  of  Moloch  which  appealed  to 
the  undying  ape  and  tiger  in  the  unregenerate  human 
heart. 

The  true  worship  of  Jehovah  is  exactly  that  form 
of  religion  which  man  finds  it  least  easy  to  render  to 
Him — the  religion  of  pure  morality.  Services,  rites, 
functions,  look  like  religious  diligence,  and  readily  secure 
a  reverent  outward  devotion.  Even  self-maceration, 
fasts,  and  flagellation  are  a  cheap  way  of  escaping  the 
"  endless  torments "  which  always  loom  so  hugely  in 
terrifying  superstition. 

Such  superstitions  are  children  of  the  fear  and  faith- 
lessness which  hath  torment.  They  are  the  corruptions 
with  which  every  form  of  false  religion,  and  with  which 
also  a  corrupt  and  perverted  Christianity,  are  always 
tainted.  And  they  demand  the  easy  expiation  of  physical 
ritual.  But  all  the  best  and  most  spiritual  teachers  of 
Scripture — alike  the  Hebrew  Prophets  and  the  Christian 
Apostles — are  at  one  with  the  Lord  Christ  in  perpetual 
insistence  on  the  truth  that  "  mercy  is  better  than 
sacrifice,"  and  that  true  religion  consists  in  that  good 
mind  and  good  life  which  are  the  sole  proof  of  genuine 
sincerity. 


354  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

If  Jehovah  would  but  be  contented  with  gifts,  men 
would  gladly  offer  Him  thousands  of  rams  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil.  But  the  prophets  taught 
that  He  was  above  all  mean  bribes,  and  that  such 
offerings  never  could  be  anything  to  One  whose  were 
all  the  beasts  of  the  forests  and  the  cattle  upon  a 
thousand  hills.  It  was  not  easy,  then,  to  bribe  such 
a  God,  or  to  make  Him  a  respecter  of  persons. 

How  easy,  again,  would  it  be,  if  He  would  even 
accept  human  sacrifices  !  A  child  was  but  a  child. 
How  easy  to  kill  a  child,  and  place  it  in  the  brazen 
arms  which  sloped  over  the  fiery  cistern  I  Moloch  and 
Chemosh  were  supremely  to  be  won  by  such  holocausts  ; 
and  surely  Moloch  and  Chemosh  must  be  lords  of 
power !  But  here  again  the  prophets  of  Jehovah 
stepped  in,  and  said  that  it  was  of  no  avail  with  the 
High,  the  Holy,  the  Merciful,  to  give  even  our  first- 
born for  our  transgressions,  or  the  fruit  of  the  body  for 
the  sin  of  the  soul. 

Asceticism,  then — occasional  fasting,  severe  self- 
deprivations — surely  the  gods  would  accept  these  ? 
And  they  were  as  nothing  compared  to  the  burden  of 
sin  and  the  agony  of  conscience  !  Baal  and  Asherah 
could  command  agonised  devotees,  and  could  approve 
of  them.  By  Jehovah  and  His  prophets  such  bodily 
service  is  discouraged  and  forbidden. 

Pleasure,  then  ? — the  consecration  of  the  natural  im- 
pulses, the  devotion  in  religious  cultus  of  the  passions 
and  appetites  of  the  flesh — why  should  that  be  so 
abhorrent  to  Jehovah  ?  Other  deities  exulted  in  licen- 
tiousness. Was  not  the  temple  of  Astarte  full  of  her 
women-worshippers  and  of  her  eunuchs  ?  Was  there 
no  fascination  in  the  voluptuous  allurements,  the 
orgiastic  dances,  the  stolen  waters,  the  bread  eaten  in 


xxi.  i-i6.]  MANASSEH  355 


secret,  when  not  only  was  the  conscience  lulled  by  the 
removal  therefrom  of  all  sense  of  guilt  and  degradation, 
but  such  orgies  were  even  crowned  with  merit,  as  part 
of  an  acceptable  worship  ?  After  all,  there  was  "  a 
fascination  of  corruption  "  in  these  idols  of  gold  and 
jewels,  of  lust  and  blood  ! 

How  stern,  how  cold,  how.  bare,  by  comparison,  was 
the  moral  law  which  only  said,  "Thou  shalt  not,"  and 
emphasised  its  prohibition  with  the  unalterable  sanc- 
tions, "  This  do,  and  thou  shalt  live "  ;  "  Do  it  not, 
and  thou  shalt  die "  I  What  could  they  make  of  a 
religion  which  was  so  eloquently  silent  as  to  the 
meritoriousness  of  ritual  ? 

And  how  chill  and  simple  and  dreary  was  that  which 
■ — according  to  Micah — Jehovah  had  shown  to  be  good, 
and  which  He  required  of  every  man, — which  was 
nothing  more  than  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and 
to  walk  humbly  with  God ! 

And  what  right  had  the  prophets — so  asked  these 
apostates — to  lord  it  over  God's  heritage  in  this  way  ? 
Solomon  was  the  greatest  king  of  Israel  and  Judah  ; 
and  Solomon  had  never  been  so  exclusive  in  his 
religionism,  though  he  had  built  the  Temple  of  the 
Lord  ;  nor  Rehoboam ;  nor  the  great  Phoenician  Queen 
Athaliah  ;  nor  the  cultivated  and  aesthetic  Ahaz  ;  nor,  in 
the  kingdom  of  Israel,  the  lordly  warrior  Ahab ;  nor 
the  splendid  and  long-lived  victor  Jeroboam  II.  Had  not 
Manasseh  plenty  of  examples  of  religious  syncretism,  to 
which  he  might  appeal  in  the  joy  of  his  youthful  age  ? 

Not  impossibly  there  lay  in  the  background  another 
reason  why  the  young  king  might  be  inclined  to  listen 
to  these  evil  counsellors.  Micah  may  still  have  been 
living;  but  of  Isaiah  we  hear  no  more.  Probably  he 
was  dead.     It  is  not  recorded   that  he  delivered  any 


356  THE  SECOND   BOOK  OF  KINGS 

prophecy  during  the  reign  of  Manasseh,  nor  is  it 
certain  that  he  outhved  the  former  king.  Tradition, 
indeed,  in  later  days,  asserted  that  he  had  confronted 
Manasseh,  and  been  doomed  to  death ;  that  he  had 
taken  refuge  in  a  cedar  tree,  and  in  that  cedar  had  been 
sawn  asunder;  but  the  tradition  is  wholly  without  a 
vestige  of  authority.  One  of  Micah's  sternest  oracles 
was  perhaps  uttered  in  the  days  of  Manasseh.^  But 
Micah  was  only  a  provincial  prophet  of  Moresheth-Gath. 
He  never  moved  in  the  midst  of  princes  as  Isaiah  had 
done,  or  possessed  a  tithe  of  the  authority  which  had 
rested  for  so  many  years  on  the  shoulders  of  his 
mighty  contemporary. 

MoreoveV — so  the  heathen  party  might  suggest — 
had  not  Isaiah's  prophecies  been  falsified  by  the  result  ? 
Had  he  not  distinctly  promised  and  pledged  his  credit 
to  two  things  ?  and  had  not  both  turned  out  to  be 
unworthy  of  reliance  ? 

i.  Surely  he  had  prophesied  the  utter  downfall  of 
the  Assyrians.  And  it  was  true  that  after  his  disaster 
on  the  confines  of  Egypt,  Sennacherib  had  fled  in  haste 
to  Nineveh,  and  his  occupations  with  rebels  on  his  own 
frontiers  had  left  Judah  unmolested,  and  he  had  been 
murdered  by  his  sons.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  in  no 
sense  of  the  word  had  Assyria  fallen.  On  the  contrary, 
she  had  never  been  more  powerful.  Not  one  of  his 
predecessors  had  seemed  more  irresistible  than  Esar- 
haddon.  He  was  undisputed  king  of  Babylon  and  of 
Nineveh.  There  would  be  no  more  embassies  from 
Merodach-Baladan,  or  any  revolted  viceroy  I  And 
rumour  would  early  begin  to  narrate  that  Esarhaddon 
had    not    forgotten    the   catastrophe   at   Pelusium,    but 

'  Mic.  vii.   I-20. 


xxi.  1-16.]  MANASSEH  357 


intended  to  avenge  it,  and  to  teach  Eg3'-pt  the  forgotten 
lessons  of  Raphia  (b.c.  720)  and  Altaqu  (b.c.  701). 

ii.  And  as  for  Judah,  where  was  the  golden  Messianic 
age  which  Isaiah  had  promised  ?  Where  did.  they  see 
the  Divine  Prince  whom  he  had  foretold,  or  the  lion 
lying  down  with  the  lamb,  and  the  child  laying  his 
hand  on  the  cockatrice's  den  ? 

All  this,  they  would  argue,  had  greatly  shaken 
Isaiah's  prophetic  authority.  Judah  was  a  mere  vassal 
— safe  only  in  so  far  as  she  remained  a  vassal,  and  did 
not  join  Tyre  or  a.:;y  other  rebellious  power,  but  abode 
safe  under  the  shadow  of  Assyria's  mighty  wings. 

Was  it  not,  then,  as  well  to  look  facts  in  the  face  ? 
to  accept  things  as  they  were  ?  And — so  they  would 
argue,  with  false  plausibility — since  the  triumph,  after 
all,  had  remained  with  the  gods  of  the  nations,  might 
it  not  be  as  well  to  dethrone  Jehovah  from  His  exclu- 
sive dominion,  and  at  least  to  propitiate  the  potent  and 
less-exacting  deities,  the  charming  Di  faciles  who  smiled 
at  lewd  aberrations,  and  even  flung  over  them  the 
glamour  of  devotion  ? 

With  these  bolder  renegades  would  be  the  whole 
body  of  the  priests  of  the  bamoth.  Those  old  sanc- 
tuaries had  been  repressed  by  Hezekiah  without  any 
compensation ;  for  in  those  days  life-interests  were 
little,  or  not  at  all,  regarded.  Multitudes  of  priests  and 
Levites  must  have  been  flung  out  of  employment  and 
reduced  to  poverty  by  the  recent  religious  revolution. 
It  is  not  likely  that  they  bore  without  a  murmur  the 
obliteration  of  forms  of  worship  sanctioned  by  imme- 
morial custom,  or  that  they  made  no  efforts  to  procure 
the  re-establishment  of  what  the  people  loved. 

Thus  a  vast  weight  of  evil  influence  was  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  boy-king ;    and  it  was  also  the  more 


558  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


powerful  because  repeated  indications  exist  that,  while 
the  king  was  nominally  a  despot,  and  was  surrounded 
with  external  observance,  the  real  control  of  affairs 
was,  to  a  large  extent,  in  the  hands  of  an  aristocracy 
of  priests  and  princes,  except  when  the  king  was  a  man 
of  great  personal  force. 

Manasseh  went  over  to  these  retrogressionists  heart 
and  soul,  and  he  contentedly  remained  a  tributary  of 
Assyria.  Even  when  Esarhaddon's  forces  marched  to  the 
chastisement  of  Egypt,  he  felt  secure  in  his  allegiance 
to  the  dominant  tyrant  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  whose 
interest  it  would  be  not  to  disturb  a  faithful  subject. 

There  followed  a  reaction,  an  absolute  rebound  from 
the  old  monotheistic  strictness  and  righteousness.  The 
nation  emancipated  itself  from  the  moral  law  as  with 
a  shout  of  relief,  and  plunged  into  superstition  and 
licentiousness.  The  reign  of  Manasseh  resembled  at 
once  the  recrudescence  of  Popery  in  the  reign  of  Mary 
Tudor,  with  its  rekindling  of  the  fires  of  Smithfield, 
and  the  foul  orgies  of  debauchery  at  the  Restoration  of 
1660,  when  human  nature,  loving  degraded  licence 
better  than  strenuous  liberty,  flung  away  the  noble 
freedom  of  Puritanism  for  the  loathly  mysteries  of 
Cotytto.  The  age  of  Manasseh  resembled  that  of 
Charles  II.,  in  the  famous  description  of  Lord  Macaulay. 
"  Then  came  days  never  to  be  recalled  without  a  blush, 
the  days  of  servitude  without  loyalty,  and  sensuality 
without  love,  of  dwarfish  talents  and  gigantic  vices,  the 
paradise  of  cold  hearts  and  narrow  minds,  the  golden 
age  of  the  coward,  the  bigot,  and  the  slave.  In  every 
high  place  worship  was  paid  to  Belial  and  Moloch,  and 
England  propitiated  these  obscene  and  cruel  idols  with 
the  blood  of  her  best  and  bravest  children."  Sensuous 
intoxication    is    in    all    cases    closely    connected    with 


xxi.  1-16.]  MANASSEH  359 


fiendish  cruelty,  and  the  introducer  of  voluptuous 
idolatries  naturally  became  the  first  persecutor  of  the 
true  religion. 

I.  The  first  step  of  the  king,  and  probably  the  one 
which  the  people  welcomed  most,  was  the  restoration 
of  the  chapelries  under  the  trees  and  on  the  hills,  which, 
more  strenuously  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  Hezekiah 
had  at  least  attempted  to  put  down.  For  this  step 
Manasseh  might  have  pleaded  the  sanction  of  ages 
to  which  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  had  either  been 
wholly  unknown,  or  during  which  its  laws  had  become 
as  utterly  forgotten  as  though  the}^  had  never  existed. 
To  many  worshippers  these  old  shrines  had  become 
extremely  precious.  They  felt  it  to  be  either  an  actual 
impossibilit}^,  or  at  the  best  intolerably  burdensome,  to 
make  their  way  by  long,  dreary,  and  difficult  journeys 
to  Jerusalem,  when  they  desired  to  pa}'  the  most 
ordinary  rites  of  worship.  They  knew  no  reason,  and 
had  never  known  of  any  reason,  why  Jehovah  should 
be  worshipped  in  one  Temple  only.  All  their  religious 
instincts  led  them  the  other  way.  They  could  point  to 
the  example  of  all  the  highly  honoured  saints  who  had 
worshipped  God  at  Gilgal,  Shechem,  Bethel,  Hebron, 
Beersheba,  Kedesh,  Gibeah,  and  many  another  shrine  ; 
and  of  all  the  saintly  kings  who  had  not  dreamt  of 
interfering  with  such  free  worship.  Why  should 
Jerusalem  monopolise  all  sanctity  ?  It  might  be  a 
politic  view  for  kings  to  maintain,  and  highly  profitable 
for  priests  to  establish  ;  but  none  of  their  great  prophets, 
not  even  the  princely  Isaiah,  had  said  one  syllable 
against  the  innocent  high  places  of  Jehovah.  In  those 
days  there  were  no  synagogues.  The  extinction  of  the 
high  places  doubtless  seemed  to  many  of  the  people  an 
extinction  of  religion  in  daily  life,  and  they  were  more 


360  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

than  half  disposed  to  agree  with  the  Rabshakeh  that 
Jehovah  was  offended  by  what  they  regarded  as  a 
burdensome,  unwise,  and  sweeping  innovation. — If  it 
be  necessary  to  answer  arguments  which  might  have 
seemed  natural,  against  a  custom  which  might  have 
seemed  innocent,  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  it  was  the 
chief  mission  of  Israel  to  keep  alive  among  the  nations 
of  the  world  the  knowledge  of  the  One  True  God,  and 
that,  amid  the  constant  temptations  to  accept  the  gods 
of  the  heathen  as  they  were  adored  in  groves  and  on 
high  places,  the  faith  of  Israel  could  no  longer  be  kept 
pure  except  by  the  Deuteronomic  institution  of  one 
central  and  exclusive  shrine. 

2.  But  Manasseh  did  far  worse  than  rehabilitate 
the  worship  at  the  high  places  which  his  father  had 
discouraged.  "  He  reared  up  altars  for  Baal,  and  made 
an  Asherah,  as  did  Ahab,  King  of  Israel."  This  was 
the  first  bad  element  of  the  new  cosmopolitan  eclecticism. 
It  involved  the  acceptance  of  the  Phoenician  nature- 
worship  with  its  manifold  abominations.  The  people  had 
grovv^n  familiar  with  it  under  Athaliah  (2  Kings  xi.  18), 
and  under  Ahaz  (2  Chron.  xxviii.  2)  ;  but  Manasseh, 
as  we  infer  from  the  account  given  of  Josiah's  reforma- 
tion, had  gone  further  than  either.  He  had  actually 
ventured  to  introduce  the  image  of  Baal  into  the 
Temple,  and  to  set  up  the  Asherah-pillar  in  front  of 
it  (2  Kings  xxiii.  4).     Worse  even  than  this,  he  had 

'  LXX.,  T]j  BadX.  The  feminine,  however,  does  not  imply  that  Baal 
was  here  worshipped  as  a  female  deity,  but  is  pr«bably  due  to  the 
fact  that  later  Jews  always  avoided  using  the  names  of  idols  (from 
a  misapprehension  or  too  literal  view  of  Exod.  xxiii.  13),  and  there- 
fore called  Baal  Bosheth  ("  shame  "),  which  is  feminine.  Hence  the 
names  Mephibosheth,  Jerubbesheth,  Ishbosheth.  In  Suidas  (^s.v. 
Mafacra-^s)  he  is  charged  with  having  set  up  in  the  Temple  "a  four- 
faced  image  of  Zeus." 


xxi.  1-16.J  MANASSEH  361 


erected  in  the  very  Temple  (id.  7)  houses  devoted  to 
the  execrable  Qedeshim  (Vulg,,  effeminati),  in  which  also 
the  women  wove  broidered  hangings  to  adorn  the 
shrines  of  the  idol  image,  as  in  the  worship  of  the 
Assyrian  Mylitta.^  He,  at  the  same  time,  displaced 
the  altar  and  removed  the  Ark.  To  the  latter  circum- 
stances is  perhaps  due  the  Rabbinic  legend  that 
Hezekiah  hid  the  Ark  till  the  coming  of  the  Messiah. 

3.  To  this  Phoenician  worship  he  added  Sabaism, 
the  worship  of  the  stars,  "all  the  host  of  heaven, 
whom  he  served."  This  was  an  entirely  new  phase  of 
idolatry,  unknown  to  the  Hebrews  till  they  came  in 
contact  with  Assyria.^  It  came  rapidly  into  vogue,  and 
exercised  over  their  imaginations  the  spell  of  a  seduc- 
tive novelty,  as  we  see  from  the  strong  testimony  of 
the  prophet  Jeremiah.^  This  is  why  it  is  so  emphatic- 
ally forbidden  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy."*  The 
king  built  altars  to  the  stars  of  the  Zodiac  {MazzarotJi), 
both  in  the  outer  court  of  the  Temple,  and  in  the  court 
of  the  priests,  and  on  these  altars  incense  or  victims 
were  continually  burned.  He  also  introduced  or  en- 
couraged the  introduction  into  the  Temple  precincts  of 
the  horses  and  chariots  dedicated  to  the  sun.^ 

When  we  read  of  the  actual  invasion  of  the  Temple- 
precincts  in  this  as  in  preceding  and  subsequent  reigns, 

'  For  D''R3,  in  2  Kings  xxiii.  7,  the  LXX.  read  Xf^"/*  (?)•  Gratz, 
{Gesch.  el.  Jtiden.,  ii.  277)  suggests  CT^?,  "  broidered  robes." 
Ezek.  xvi.  16.  See  Herod.,  i.  199;  Strabo,  xvi.  1058 ;  Luc,  De  Ded. 
Syr.,  §  6;  Libanius,  Opp.,  xi.  456,  557  ;  Ep.  of  Jeremy,  43  ;  Dollinger, 
Jtidenthutn  u.  Heidenthuni,  i.  431  ;  Rawlinson,  Phoenicia,  431. 

-  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  3  ;  2  Kings  xxiii.  5.    Movers,  Rel.  d.  Phbnis.,  i.  65 
"  In  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  written  before  the  Ass3Tian 
period  no  trace  of  star-worship  is  to  be  found."     2  Kings  xvii.  16. 

'  Jer.  vii.  18,  viii.  2,  xix.  13 ;  Zeph.  i.  5. 

*  See  Deut.  iv.  19,  xvii.  3. 

*  2  Kings  xxiii.  11,  I2. 


?62  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


we  cannot  but  ask,  Were  these  atrocities  committed  with 
the  sanction  or  with  the  connivance  of  the  priests  ? 
We  are  not  told.  Yet  how  can  it  have  been  otherwise  ? 
If  the  high  priest  Azariah  could  muster  eighty  priests 
to  oppose  King  Uzziah,  when  he  merely  wished  to 
burn  incense  in  the  Temple,  as  Solomon  had  done 
before  him,  and  as  Ahaz  did  after  him — if  Jehoiada 
could,  according  to  the  Chronicler,  muster  a  perfect 
army  of  priests  and  Levites  to  dethrone  Athaliah,  and 
could  so  stir  up  the  people  that  they  rose  en  masse  to 
tear  down  the  temple  of  Baal,  and  slay  Mattan,  his 
high  priest, — how  was  it  possible  for  Manasseh  to  per- 
petrate these  flagrant  acts  of  idolatrous  apostasy,  if  the 
priests  were  all  ranged  in  opposition  to  his  power  ? 
Was  their  authority  suddenly  paralysed  ?  Did  their 
influence  with  the  people  shrivel  into  nothing  when 
Hezekiah  had  been  carried  to  his  tomb  ?  Or  did  these 
priests  follow  "the  easy  and  profitable  course  which 
they  seem  to  have  followed  throughout  the  whole 
history  of  the  kings  without  an  exception  ? — did  the}' 
simply  answer  the  kings  according  to  their  idols  ? 

4.  Another,  and  the  most  hideous,  element  of  the  new 
mixture  of  cults  was  the  reintroduction  of  the  ancient 
Canaanite  worship  of  Moloch  with  its  human  sacrifices. 
Manasseh,  like  Ahaz,  made  his  son — or,  according  to 
the  Chronicler  and  the  Septuagint,  *'  his  sons  " — pass 
through  the  fire  to  this  grim  Ammonite  idol  in  Tophet 
of  the  Valley  of  Hinnom,  so  as  to  leave  no  chance 
untried.  And  herein  he  was  far  more  inexcusable  than 
his  grandfather ;  for  Ahaz  had  at  least  been  driven  by 
desperate  extremity  to  this  last  expedient,  but  Manasseh 
was  living,  if  not  in  prosperity,  at  least  in  unbroken 
peace.  Moreover,  he  not  only  did  this  himself,  but  did 
his  utmost  to  make  a  popular  institution  of  children- 


xxi.  1-16.]  MANASSEH 


sacrifice,   so    that    many  practised    it  in    the    dreadful 
valley  and  amid  the  rocks  outside  Jerusalem.^ 

5,  Even  this  did  not  suffice  him.  To  these  Assyrian, 
Phoenician,  and  Canaanite  elements  of  idolatry  he 
added  Babylonian  novelties.  He  practised  augury,  and 
used  enchantments,  and  he  dealt  with  famihar  spirits 
and  wizards,  as  though  without  Egyptian  necromancy 
and  Mesopotamian  shamanism  his  eclectic  worship 
would  be  incomplete.' 

6.  Thus  "  he  wrought  much  wickedness  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord  to  provoke  Him  to  anger."  He  placed  a 
graven  image  of  his  Asherah  inside  the  Temple,  and 
utterly  profaned  the  sacred  .house,  and  seduced  his 
people  "to  do  more  evil  than  did  the  nations  whom 
the  Lord  destroyed  before  the  children  of  Israel." 

Whatever  was  the  conduct  of  the  priests,  the 
prophets  were  not  silent.  They  denounced  Manasseh 
for  having  done  worse  than  even  the  ancient  Amorites, 
and  declared  that,  in  consequence  of  his  crimes,  God 
would  bring  upon  Jerusalem  such  evil  as  would  cause 
both  the  ears  of  him  that  heard  it  to  tingle  ;  ^  that  he 
would  stretch  over  Jerusalem  for  ruin  the  line  and  the 
level  of  Ahab  ;  *  that  He  would  cast  oif  even  the  remnant, 
and  deliver  them  to  their  enemies  ;  that  He  would  wipe 
out  Jerusalem  "  as  a  man  wipeth  a  dish,  wiping  and 
turning  it  upside  down."^ 

'  See  Jer.  vii.  31,  32,  xix.  2-6,  xxxii.  35  ;  Psalm  cvi.  37,  38. 

"^  Evvald  infers  from  Isa.  Ivii.  5-9 ;  Jer.  ii.  5-13,  that  he  actually 
sought  for  all  foreign  kinds  of  worship,  in  order  to  introduce  them. 

^  I  Sam.  iii.  il  ;  Jer.  xix.  3. 

■*  Comp.  Isa.  xxxiv.  II  ;  Lam.  ii.  8. 

'^  2  Kings  xxi.  13.  LXX.,  d.\d^a<XTpos,  al.irv^Lov.  The  Vulgate  also 
takes  it  to  mean  the  obliteration  of  writing  on  a  tablet :  "  Delebo 
Jerusalem  sicut  deleri  solent  tabulae ;  et  ducam  crebrius  stylum 
super  faciem  ejus." 


364  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


The  finest  oracles  of  Micah  (vi.  i-vii.  7)  were 
probably  uttered  in  the  reign  of  Manasseh,  and  give 
the  simplest  and  purest  expression  to  the  supremacy 
of  morality  as  the  one  true  end  and  test  of  religion. 
Micah  is  as  indifferent  as  the  Decalogue  to  all  claims 
of  rites,  ceremonies,  and  outward  worship.  "  Jehovah 
demands  nothing  for  Himself;  all  that  He  asks  is  for 
man  :  this  is  the  fundamental  law  of  the  theocracy." 

The  apostasies  of  the  king  and  the  denunciation  of 
the  prophets  thus  came  into  fierce  collision,  and  led 
naturally  to  persecution  and  bloodshed.  Perhaps  in 
Mic.  vii.  1-7  we  catch  the  echoes  of  the  Reign  of 
Terror.  The  king  resorted  to  violence,  using,  no  doubt, 
the  tyrant's  devilish  plea  of  necessity.  He  made  blood 
run  like  water  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  from  end  to 
end,^  and,  in  the  exaggerated  phrase  of  Josephus,  was 
daily  slaying  the  prophets.^  It  was  during  this  per- 
secution, according  to  Rabbinic  tradition,  that  Isaiah 
received  the  martyr's  crown. ^ 

And  no  miracles  were  wrought  to  save  the  martyrs. 
Elijah  and  Elisha  had  been  surrounded  with  a  blaze  of 
miracles,  but  in  Judah  no  prophet  arose  who  could  so 
wield  the  power  of  Heaven. 

At  this  point  the  narrative  of  the  historian  about 
Manasseh  ends.  If  he  shared  the  current  opinion  of 
his  day,  which  connected  individual  and  national  pros- 

'  2  Kings  xxi.  16;  Heb.,  "from  mouth  to  mouth  " ;  LXX.,  ori/ta  eh 
CTTbixa  ;  Vulg.,  donee  impleret  Jerusalem  usque  ad  os.     Comp.  2  Kings 

X.  21. 

*  Antt.y  X.  iii.  I  :  "  He  butchered  alike  all  the  just  among  the  He- 
brews."   To  this  reign  of  terror  some  refer  Psalm  xii.  i  ;  Isa.  Ivii.  1-4. 

*  This  (as  I  have  said)  cannot  be  regarded  as  certain.  Isaiah 
began  to  prophesy  in  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died,  sixty  years 
before  Manasseh.  It  is  a  Jewish  Haggadah.  See  Gesen  on  Isa.  i., 
p.  9,  and  the  Apocryphal  "  Ascension  of  Isaiah." 


xxi.  1-16.]  MANASSEH  365 

parity  with  well-doing,  and  regarded  length  of  days  as  a 
sign  of  the  favour  of  Heaven,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
misfortune  and  misery  invariably  resulted  from  the 
wrath  of  Jehovah,  he  could  not  have  been  otherwise 
than  surprised,  and  perhaps  even  pained,  to  have  to 
relate  that  Manasseh  reigned  fifty-five  years.  Not 
only  was  his  reign  longer  than  that  of  any  other  king 
of  Israel  or  Judah ;  not  only  did  he  attain  a  greater 
age  than  any  of  them ;  but,  further,  no  calamity  seems 
to  have  marked  his  rule.  A  contented  and  protected 
vassal  of  Esarhaddon,  secure  from  his  attacks,  and 
also  unmolested  by  the  weakened  and  subjugated 
nations  around  him,  he  would  seem,  in  the  story  of  the 
Kings,  to  have  enjoyed  an  enviable  external  lot,  and  to 
have  presided  over  a  people  who  were  happy,  in  that, 
during  his  rule,  they  had  no  history.  But  whatever 
the  writer  may  have  felt,  he  tells  us  no  more,  and  lets 
us  see  Manasseh  sink  peacefully  into  his  grave  "  in  the 
garden  of  his  own  house,  in  the  garden  of  Uzza," 
and  leave  to  his  son  Amon  a  peaceful  realm  and  an 
undisputed  crown.  Such  a  career  would  undoubtedly 
perplex  and  confound  all  the  preconceived  opinions  of 
Jewish  orthodoxy.  The  prosperity  of  Manasseh  would 
have  presented  as  great  a  problem  to  them  as  the 
miseries  of  Job.  They  looked  to  temporal  prosperity 
as  the  reward  of  righteousness,  and  to  acute  misery  as 
the  retribution  of  apostasy  and  sin.  They  had  little 
or  no  conception  of  a  future  which  should  redress  the 
balance  of  apparent  earthly  inequalities.  Alike  the 
sight  of  Manasseh's  long  reign  and  Josiah's  undeserved 
death  in  battle  would  give  a  powerful  shock  to  their 
fixed  convictions. 

Far  different  is  the  end  of  the  story  in  the  Book  of 
Chronicles.     The   records  of  Esarhaddon   tell   us  that 


366  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

in  680  he  made  an  expedition  into  Palestine  to  restore 
the  shaken  influence  of  his  father/  and  about  647  he 
mentions  among  his  submissive  tributaries  the  kings 
of  Tyre,  Edom,  Moab,  Gaza,  Ekron,  Askelon,  Gebal, 
Ammon,  Ashdod,  and  Manasseh,  King  of  Judah 
("  Minasi-sar-Yahudi "),  as  well  as  ten  princes  of 
Cyprus.  Whether  the  King  of  Judah  rebelled  later 
on,  and  intrigued  with  Tirhakah,  we  do  not  know ; 
but  in  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  1 1  we  read  that  Esarhaddon 
sent  his  generals  to  Jerusalem,  took  Manasseh  by 
stratagem,  drove  rings  through  his  lips,  bound  him  in 
chains,  and  brought  him  to  Babylon,  where  Esarhaddon 
was  holding  his  court.''^  We  find  from  the  Eponym 
Canon  that  Tyre  revolted  from  Assyria  in  the  tenth 
year  of  Esarhaddon,  and  Manasseh  may  have  been 
drawn  away  to  join  in  the  revolt ;  or  he  may  have 
joined  Shamash-shum-ukm,  the  Viceroy  of  Babylon,  in 
his  revolt  against  his  brother  Assurbanipal.  As  a  rule, 
the  lot  of  a  conquered  vassal  at  the  Assyrian  Court  was 
horrible,  and  in  his  utter  misery  Manasseh  repented, 
humbled  himself,  and  prayed.  His  prayer  was  heard. 
The  despots  of  Nineveh  were  capricious  alike  in  their 


'  Esarhaddon  reigned  only  eight  years,  till  668,  and  then  resigned 
in  favour  of  his  son  Assurbanipal.  In  his  reign  Psammetichus 
recovered  Egypt,  and  put  an  end  to  the  Dodecarchy.  In  the  reign 
of  his  successor,  Assuredililani,  Assyria  began  to  decline  (647-625). 

'^  Comp.  Isa.  xxxix.  6;  Jos.,  Anti.,  X.  iii.  2.  The  phrase  "among 
the  thorns"  means  "with  rings  "  (comp.  Isa.  xxx.  28,  xxxvii.  29;  Ezek. 
xxxviii.  4  ;  Amos  iv.  2).  Assurbanipal  says  similarly  that  he  seized 
Necho,  "  bound  him  with  bonds  and  iron  chains,  hands  and  feet," 
but  afterwards  allowed  him  to  return  to  Egypt  (Schrader,  ii.  59). 

=•  Late  and  worthless  Haggadoth,  echoed  by  still  later  writers 
(Suidas  and  Syncellus),  say  he  was  kept  in  a  brazen  cage,  fed  on 
bran  bread  dipped  in  vinegar,  etc.  See  Apost,  ConsU.,  ii.  22  :  "  And 
the  Lord  hearkened  to  his  voice,  and  there  became  about  him  a  flame 
of  fire,  and  all  the  irons  about  him  melted."    John  Damasc,  Parall., 


xxi.  i-i6.]  MANASSEH  367 


insults  and  in  their  favours,  and  Esarhaddon  not  only 
pardoned  Manasseh,  but  sent  him  back  to  Jerusalem/ 
thinking  that  he  would  be  more  useful  to  him  there  than 
in  a  Babylonian  dungeon.  After  this  reprieve  he  lived 
like  a  penitent  and  a  patriot.  Esarhaddon  was  preparing 
for  his  expedition  against  Tirhakah,  and  would  not  attack 
a  king  who  was  now  bound  t*o  him  by  gratitude  as  well 
as  fear.  But  the  times  were  very  troublous,  Manasseh 
prepared  for  eventualities  by  building  an  outer  wall  on 
the  west  of  the  city  of  David,  unto  Gihon  in  the  Valley, 
by  surrounding  Ophel  with  a  high  wall,  and  by  garri- 
soning the  fenced  cities.^  All  this  was  necessary  and 
patriotic  work,  considering  that  Judah  might  be  attacked 
by  other  enemies  as  well  as  the  Assyrians.  She  was 
like  a  grain  of  corn  amid  the  grinding  mills  of  the 
nations.  Media  and  Lydia  were  rising  into  strong 
kingdoms.  Babylon  was  becoming  daily  more  formid- 
able. Dim  rumours  reached  the  East  of  movements 
among  vast  hosts  of  Cimmerian  and  Scythian  barbarians. 
Jerusalem  had  no  human  strength  for  war.  She  could 
only  rely  upon  her  battlements,  on  the  natural  strength 
of  her  position,  and  on  the  protection  of  her  God. 
Almost  in  the  last  year  of  Manasseh,  the  powerful 
Psammetichus  I.,  king  of  a  now  united  Egypt,  made  an 
assault  on  Ashdod ;  but  he  did  not  venture  on  the 
difficult  task  of  besieging  Jerusalem. 

The  religious  reformation  of  Manasseh  attested  the 


ii.  15,  quotes  from  Julius  Africanus,  that  while  Manasseh  was  saying 
a  psalm  his  iron  bonds  burst,  and  he  escaped.  See  Speaker's  Com- 
mentary, on  Apocrypha,  ii.  363. 

'  Such  pardon  from  a  king  of  Assyria  was  rare,  but  not  unparalleled. 
Pharaoh  Nccho  I.  was  taken  in  chains  to  Nineveh,  and  afterwards  set 
free  (Schrader,  K.  A.  T.,  p.  371). 

^  See  2  Chron.  xxvii. '3.  The  "fish  gate"  was,  perhaps,  a  weak 
point  (Zeph.  i.  10). 


368  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

sincerity  of  his  amendment.  He  flung  out  the  Asherah 
from  the  Temple,  put  away  the  strange  gods,  destroyed 
the  altars,  burnt  sacrifices  to  God,  and  used  all  his 
power  to  restore  the  worship  of  Jehovah.  He  did  not, 
however,  destroy  the  high  places.  For  this  story  the 
Chronicler  refers  to  "the  words  of  Chozai,"^  according 
to  the  present  text,  which  some  suppose  to  have  meant 
"  the  story  of  the  Seers."  He  also  refers  to  a  prayer 
of  Manasseh,  which  cannot  of  course  be  the  Greek 
forgery  of  the  second  or  third  century  which  goes  by 
that  name  in  the  Apocrypha.^  His  repentance  doubt- 
less secured  his  own  salvation.  "  Whoso  saith  '  Man- 
asseh hath  no  part  in  the  world  to  come,' "  said  Rabbi 
Johanan,  '*  discourageth  the  penitent  "  ; — but  the  partial 
reformation  was  too  late  to  save  his  land. 

Is  this  a  literal  history,  or  an  edifying  Haggadah  ? 
The  non-historical  character  of  the  story  is  maintained 
by  De  Wette,  Graf,  Ndldeke,  and  many  others.  Both 
views  have  been  taken.  This  we  can,  at  any  rate, 
assert — that  there  seems  to  be  nothing  in  the  story 
which  is  inconsistent  with  probability.  The  Chronicler 
may  have  derived  it  from  genuine  documents  or  tradi- 
tions, though  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  silence  of 
the  elder  and  more  trustworthy  historian.  Nor  is  it 
only  his  silence  for  which  we  have  to  account ;  it  is 
the  continuance  of  his  positive  statements.     It  would 


'  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  19.  Heb.,  dibhri  Chosai;  A.V.,  "the  story  of  the 
Seers  " ;  R.V.,  "  in  the  history  of  Hozai " ;  LXX.,  iwl  rwv  X6ywv  twv 
oi)/3aj'tcDj';  Vulg.,  in  sermonibns  Hozai,  The  elements  of  doubt  sug- 
gested by  the  name  "Babylon,"  and  by  the  liberation  of  Manasseh, 
have  been  removed  by  further  knowledge.  See  Budge,  Hist,  of 
Esarhaddon,  p.  78;  Schrader,  K.  A.   T.,  369  ff. 

2  Since  the  Council  of  Trent  this  prayer  has  been  relegated  to  the 
end  of  the  Vulgate  with  3,  4,  Esdras.  Verse  8  (the  supposed  sjnless- 
ness  of  the  Patriarchs)  at  once  shows  it  to  be  a  mere  composition. 


xxi.  1-16.]  MANASSEH 


be,  in  any  case,  a  strange  conception  of  history  which, 
after  narrating  a  man's  crimes,  omitted  ahke  the  retri- 
bution which  befell  him  on  account  of  them,  the  heartfelt 
penitence  for  the  sake  of  which  they  were  forgiven,  and 
the  seriously  earnest  endeavour  to  undo  at  least  some- 
thing of  the  evil  which  he  had  done.  Not  only  does 
the  historian  make  these  omissions,  but  in  no  subse- 
quent allusion  to  Manasseh  does  he  so  much  as  indicate 
that  he  is  aware  of  his  amendment.^  He  says  that 
Amon  "  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  as  his  father 
Manasseh  did."^  He  speaks  of  the  altars  to  the  hosts 
of  heaven  which  Manasseh  had  made  in  the  two  courts 
of  the  Temple  as  still  standing  in  the  reign  of  Josiah, 
though  the  Chronicler  tells  us  that  Manasseh  had  cast 
them  all  out  of  the  city.^  He  says  that,  notwithstanding 
all  that  Josiah  did,  "  the  Lord  turned  not  from  the 
fierceness  of  His  great  wrath,  because  of  all  the  provo- 
cations that  Manasseh  had  provoked  Him  withal,"  *  and 
that  on  this  account  God  cast  off  Jerusalem.  Never, 
even  by  the  most  distant  allusions,  does  he  refer  to 
Manasseh's  captivity,  his  prayer,  his  penitence,  or  his 
counter-efforts.  Had  he  been  aware  of  these,  his 
silence  would  have  been  neither  generous  nor  just. 
Nay,  he  even  leaves  apparent  facts  at  conflict  with  the 
Chronicler's  story,  for  he  makes  Josiah  do  all  that  the 
Chronicler  tells  us  that  Manasseh  himself  had  done  in 
the  removal  of  his  worst  abominations. 

Even  now  we  have  not  exhausted  the  historic  diffi- 
culties which  surround  the  repentance  of  Manasseh, 
During  his  reign  Jeremiah  received  his  call,  and  while 
still  a  young  boy  began  his  work.  Neither  he,  nor 
Zephaniah,  nor  Habakkuk  drop  the  slightest  hint  that 

'  2  Kings  xxiii.  12.  ^  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  15. 

^  2  Kings  xxi.  20.  *  2  Kings  xxiii.  26. 

24 


370  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


the  wicked,  idolatrous  king  had  ever  tuined  over  a  new 
leaf.  Jeremiah's  silence  is  specially  difficult  to  account 
for.  He,  too,  records  Jehovah's  final  and  irrevocable 
decree,  that  He  would  give  up  Judah  to  death,  to  exile, 
and  to  famine,  to  the  sword  to  slay,  to  the  dogs  to  tear, 
to  the  fowls  of  the  heaven  and  the  beasts  of  the  earth 
to  devour  and  to  destroy.^  And  the  cause  of  the 
pitiless  doom  pronounced  by  a  Judge  weary  of  repent- 
ing is  *'  because  of  Manasseh,  the  son  of  Hezekiah, 
King  of  Judah,  for  that  which  he  did  in  Jerusalem."  "^ 

The  judgment  was  not  long  delayed. 

It  was  the  vast  movement  of  the  Scythians  in  Media 
and  Western  Asia,  and  the  rumours  of  it,  which  gave 
to  Manasseh  and  Amon  such  respite  as  they  had  ;  and 
even  this  respite  was  full  of  misery  and  fear.^ 

'  Jen  XV.  1-9. 

-  The  later  Jews  certainly  took  no  account  of  his  repentance.  His 
name  was  execrated  (see  the  substitution  of  Manasseh  for  Moses  in 
Judg.  xviii.  30),  and  he  was  denied  all  part  in  the  world  to  come. 
The  Apoci-yphal  "  Prayer  of  Manasses  "  has  no  authority,  though  it 
is  interesting  (Butler,  Analogy,  pt.  ii.,  ch.  v.). 

•''  In  estimating  the  Chronicler's  story,  we  cannot  wholly  forget  the 
fact  that  a  number  of  Haggadic  legends  clustered  thickly  round  the 
name  of  Manasseh  in  the  literature  of  the  later  Jews.  He  is  charged 
with  incest,  with  the  murder  of  Isaiah,  the  distortion  of  Scripture,  etc., 
and  is  represented  as  having  got  to  heaven,  not  by  real  repentance, 
but  by  challenging  God  on  His  superiority  to  idols.  The  Targum, 
after  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  11,  adds,  "And  the  Chaldees  made  a  copper 
mule,  and  pierced  it  all  over  with  little  holes,  and  put  him  therein. 
And  when  he  was  in  straits,  he  cried  in  vain  to  all  his  idols.  Then 
he  prayed  to  Jehovah  and  humbled  himself;  but  the  angels  shut  every 
window  and  lattice  of  heaven,  that  his  prayer  might  not  enter.  But 
forthwith  the  pity  of  the  Lord  of  the  world  rolled  forth,  and  He  made 
an  aperture  in  heaven,  and  the  mule  burst  asunder,  and  the  Spirit 
breathed  on  him,  and  he  forsook  all  his  idols."  "  No  books,"  says  Dr. 
Neubauer,  "are  more  subject  to  additions  and  various  adaptations 
than  popular  histories."  See  Mr.  Ball's  commentary  (Speaker's 
Commentary,  ii.  309,  and  Sanhedrin,  f.  99,  2  ;  loi,  i  ;  103,  2). 


xxi.  19-26.]  AMON  371 

AMON' 

B.C.    641 — 639 

2  Kings  xxi.  19-^26 

The  brief  reign  of  Amon  is  only  a  sort  of  unimportant 
and  miserable  annex  to  that  of  his  father.  As  he  was 
twenty-two  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign,  he  must 
have  witnessed  the  repentance  and  reforming  zeal  of 
his  father,  if,  in  spite  of  all  difficulties,  we  assume  that 
narrative  to  be  historical.  In  that  case,  however,  the 
young  man  was  wholly  untouched  by  the  latter  phase 
of  Manasseh's  life,  and  flung  himself  headlong  into  the 
career  of  the  king's  earlier  idolatries.  "  He  walked 
in  all  the  way  that  his  father  walked  in,  and  served  the 
idols  that  his  father  served,  and  worshipped  them  " — 
which  was  the  more  extraordinary  if  Manasseh's  last 
acts  had  been  to  dethrone  and  destroy  these  strange 
gods.  He  even  "multiplied  trespass,"  so  that  in  his 
son's  reign  we  find  every  form  of  abomination  as 
triumphant  as  though  Manasseh  had  never  attempted 
to  check  the  tide  of  evil.  We  know  nothing  more  of 
Amon.  Apparently  he  only  reigned  two  years.^  He 
is  the  only  Jewish  king  who  bears  the  name  of  a 
foreign — an   Egyptian — deity. 

For  pictures  of  the  state  of  things  in  this  reign  we 
may  look  to  the  prophets  Zephaniah  and  Jeremiah,  and 
they  are  forced  to  use  the  darkest  colours. 

'  The  name  Amon  is  unusual.  Some  identify  it  with  the  name 
of  the  Egyptian  sun-god  (Nah.  iii,  8).  If  so,  we  see  yet  another 
element  of  Manasseh's  syncretism,  and  (as  some  fancy)  an  attempt 
to  open  relations  with  Psammetichus  of  Egypt.  But  perhaps  the 
name  may  be  Hebrew  for  "Architect "  (i  Kings  xxii.  26 ;  Neh.  vii.  59). 

*  2  Kings  xxi.  19.  The  LXX.  reads  "  twelve  years,"  but  not  so 
Josephus  {Antt.,  X.  iv.  i),  or  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  21. 


372  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

This  is  Zephaniah's  picture  : — 

"  Woe  to  her  that  is  rebellious  and  polluted,  to  the  oppressing  city  ! 
She  obeyed  not  the  voice ;  she  received  not  instruction  ; 
She  trusted  not  in  the  Lord  ;  she  drew  not  near  to  her  God. 
Her  princes  in  the  midst  of  her  are  roaring  lions  ; 
Her  judges  are  evening  wolves ;  they  gnaw  not  the  bones  on  the 

morrow. 
Her  prophets  are  light  and  treacherous  persons ; 
Her  priests  have  profaned  the  sanctuary,  they  have  done  violence 
to  the  law." ' 

He  tells  us  that  Baal  and  his  black-robed  chemarim  ^ 
are  still  prevalent — that  men  worshipped  on  their  house- 
tops the  host  of  heaven,  and  swore  by  "  Moloch  their 
king."  Therefore  would  God  search  Jerusalem  with 
candles,  and  would  visit  the  men  who  had  sunk,  like 
thick  wine  on  the  lees,  and  who  said  in  their  infidel 
hearts,  "  Jehovah  will  not  do  good,  neither  will  He  do 
evil."  He  is  an  Epicurean  God,  a  cypher,  a  faineant. 
"  Men  make  all  kinds  of  fine  calculations,"  says  Luther, 
"  but  the  Lord  God  says  to  them,  '  For  whom,  then,  do 
you  hold  Me  ?  For  a  cypher  ?  Do  I  sit  here  in  vain, 
and  to  no  purpose  ?  You  shall  know  that  I  will  turn 
their  accounts  about  finely,  and  make  them  all  false 
reckonings.' " 

Not  less  dark  is  the  view  of  Jeremiah.^  Like 
Diogenes  in  Athens,  Jeremiah  in  vain  searches  Jeru- 
salem for  a  faithful  man.  Among  the  poor  he  finds 
brutish   obstinacy,   among   the  rich  insolent   defiance. 

-     •  Zeph.  iii.  l-li.     Comp.  i.  4. 

^  Chemarim,  2  Kings  xxiii.  5  ;  Hos.  x.  5.  The  root  in  Syriac 
means  "to  be  sad,"  but  Kinichi  derives  it  from  a  root  "to  be  black." 
The  Vulgate  renders  it  ceditui  and  aruspices. 

^  We  are  told  in  the  titles  of  their  books  that  both  these  prophets 
prophesied  in  the  days  of  Josiah  ;  but  such  pictures  can  only  apply  to 
the  earliest  years  of  his  reign. 


xxi.  19-26  ]  AMON  373 

They  were  like  fed  horses  in  the  morning — lecherous 
and  unruly.  They  are  slanderers,  adulterers,  cor- 
rupters, murderers.  They  worship  Baal  and  strange 
gods.  "  They  set  a  trap,  they  .catch  men.  As  a  cage 
is  full  of  birds,  so  are  their  houses  full  of  deceit.  They 
are  waxen  fat,  they  shine  ;  yea,  they  overpass  in  deeds  of 
wickedness."^  "  An  astonishment  and  horror  is  done 
in  the  land ;  the  prophets  prophesy  falsely,  and  the 
priests  bear  rule  by  their  means  ;  and  My  people  love 
to  have  it  so:  and  what  will  ye  do  in  the  end  thereof?"^ 

"  From  the  least  of  them  even  unto  the  greatest  of 
them  every  one  is  given  to  covetousness ;  and  from 
the  prophet  even  unto  the  priest  every  one  dealeth 
falsely.  They  have  treated  also  the  hurt  of  My  people 
lightly,  saying,  '  Peace,  peace,'  when  there  is  no  peace. 
Were  they  ashamed  when  they  had  committed  abomina- 
tions ?  Nay,  they  were  not  at  all  ashamed,  neither 
could  they  blush  :  therefore  shall  they  fall  among  them 
that  fall."^ 

The  wretched  reign  ended  wretchedly.  Amon  met 
the  fate  of  Amaziah  and  of  Joash.  He  was  murdered 
by  conspirators — by  some  of  his  own  courtiers — in  his 
own  palace.  He  was  not  the  victim  of  any  general 
rebellion.  The  people  of  the  land  were  apparently 
content  with  the  existent  idolatry,  which  left  them  free 
for  lives  of  lust  and  luxury,  of  greed  and  gain.  They 
resented  the  disorder  introduced  by  an  intrigue  of 
eunuchs  or  court  officials.  They  rose  and  slew  the 
whole  band  of  conspirators.  Amon  was  buried  with 
his  father  in  the  new  burial-place  of  the  Kings  in  the 
garden  of  Uzza,  and  the  people  placed  his  son  Josiah 
— a  child  of  eight  years  old — upon  the  throne. 

'  See  Jer.  v.,  vi.,  v'n.,  passim.  ^  Jer.  vi.  13-15. 

■  Jer.  V,  30,  31. 


CHAPTER   XXX 

JOSIAH 

B.C.  639 — 608  ' 

2  Kings  xxii.,  xxiii 

"  Tijc   5e  (pvKTiv   avTos  dpiaros  virripx^  Kai  irpbs  dpeT}]v  ed  yeyovilis." — 
Jos.,  Antt.,  X.  iv.  I. 

"In  outline  dim  and  vast 
Their  fearful  shadows  cast 
The  giant  forms  of  Empires,  on  their  way 
To  ruin  :  one  by  one 
They  tower,  and  they  are  gone.'' 

Keble. 

IF  we  are  to  understand  the  reign  of  Josiah  as  a 
whole,  we  must  preface  it  by  some  allusion  to  the 
great  epoch-marking  circumstances  of  his  age,  which 
explain  the  references  of  contemporary  prophets,  and 
which,  in  great  measure,  determined  the  foreign  policy 
of  the  pious  king. 

The  three  memorable  events  of  this  brief  epoch 
were,  (I.)  the  movement  of  the  Scythians,  (II.)  the  rise 
of  Babylon,  and  (HI.)  the  humiliation  of  Nineveh, 
followed  by  her  total  destruction. 

I.  Many  of  Jeremiah's  earlier  prophecies  belong  to 
this  period,  and  we  see  that  both  he  and  Zephaniah 
— who  was  probably  a  great-great-grandson  of  King 

'  Kamphausen  {Die  Chronologie  der  kebmiscker  Konige)  makes 
Josiah  suceed  to  the  throne  in  638. 

374 


xxii.,  xxiii.]  JOSIAH  37S 

Hezekiah  himself/  and  prophesied  in  this  reign  ^ — 
are  greatly  occupied  with  a  danger  from  the  North  which 
seems  to  threaten  universal  ruin. 

So  overwhelming  is  the  peril  that  Zephaniah  begins 
with  the  tremendously  sweeping  menace,  "  /  will  utterly 
consume  all  things  off  the  earth,  saith  the  Lord." 

Then  the  curse  rushes  dqwn  specifically  upon  Judah 
and  Jerusalem ;  and  the  state  of  things  which  the 
prophet  describes  shows  that,  if  Josiah  began  himself 
to  seek  the  Lord  at  eight  years  old,  he  did  not  take — 
and  was,  perhaps,  unable  to  take — any  active  steps 
towards  the  extinction  of  idolatry  till  he  was  old 
enough  to  hold  in  his  own  hand  the  reins  of  power. 

For  Zephaniah  denounces  the  wrath  of  Jehovah  on 
three  classes  of  idolaters — viz.,  (i)  the  remnant  of  Baal- 
worshippers  with  their  chemarim,  or  unlawful  priests, 
and  the  syncretising  priests  {kohanini)  of  Jehovah,  who 
combine  His  worship  with  that  of  the  stars,  to  whom 
they  burn  incense  upon  the  housetops ;  (2)  the  waverers, 
who  swear  at  once  by  Jehovah  and  by  Malcham,  their 
king  ;  and  (3)  the  open  despisers  and  apostates.  For 
all  these  the  day  of  Jehovah  is  near ;  He  has  pre- 
pared them  for  sacrifice,  and  the  sacrificers  are  at 
hand.^    Gaza,  Ashdod,  Askelon,  Ekron,  the  Cherethites, 


'  Otherwise  his  genealogy  would  not  be  mentioned  for  four 
generations  (Hitzig). 

'^  Zeph.  !.  I.  Jeremiah  also  was  highly  connected.  He  was  a 
priest,  and  his  father  Hilkiah  may  be  the  high  priest  who  found  the 
book  ;  "  for  his  uncle  Shallum,  father  of  his  cousin  Hanameel,  was  the 
husband  of  Huldah  the  prophetess  (2  Kings  xxii.  14;  Jer.  xxxii.  7). 
The  fact  that  Jeremiah's  property  was  at  Anathoth,  where  lived  the 
descendants  of  Ithamar  (i  Kings  ii.  26),  whereas  Hilkiah  was  of 
the  family  of  Eleazar  (l  Chron.  vi.  4- 1 3),  does  not  seem  fatal  to  the 
view  that  his  father  was  the  high  priest. 

^  Zeph.  ii.  4-7. 


376  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Canaan,  Philistia,  are  all  threatened  by  the  same  im- 
pending ruin,  as  well  as  Moab  and  Ammon,  who  shall 
lose  their  lands.  Ethiopia,  too,  and  Assyria  shall  be 
smitten,  and  Nineveh  shall  become  so  complete  a 
desolation  that  "  pelicans  and  hedgehogs  shall  bivouac 
upon  her  chapiters,  the  owl  shall  hoot  in  her  windows, 
and  the  crow  croak  upon  the  threshold,  '  Crushed  1 
desolated  I  '  and  all  that  pass  by  shall  hiss  and  wag 
their  hands."  ^ 

The  pictures  of  the  state  of  society  drawn  by  Jere- 
miah do  not,  as  we  have  seen,  differ  from  those  drawn 
by  his  contemporary.^  Jeremiah,  too,  writing  perhaps 
before  Josiah's  reformation,  complains  that  God's  people 
have  forsaken  the  fountains  of  living  water,  to  hew 
out  for  themselves  broken  cisterns.  He  complains  of 
empty  formalism  in  the  place  of  true  righteousness,  and 
even  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  backsliding  Israel  has 
shown  herself  more  righteous  than  treacherous  Judah 
(iii.  l-i  i).  He,  too,  prophesies  speedy  and  terrific  chas- 
tisement. Let  Judah  gather  herself  into  fenced  cities, 
and  save  her  goods  by  flight,  for  God  is  bringing  evil 
from  the  North,  and  a  great  destruction.^ 

"The  lion  is  come  up  from  his  thicket,  and  the 
destroyer  of  the  nations  is  on  his  way ;  he  is  gone 
forth  from  his  place  to  make  thy  land  desolate ;  and 
thy  cities  shall  be  laid  waste,  without  an  inhabitant. 
Behold,  he  cometh  as  clouds,  and  his  chariots  shall  be 
as  the  whirlwind."  Besiegers  come  from  a  far  country, 
and  give  out   their  voice  against  the  cities   of  Judah. 

'  Zeph.  ii.  12-15. 

-  Jer.  ii.  1-35.  Considering  the  very  great  part  played  by  Jere- 
miah for  nearly  half  a  century  of  the  last  history  of  Judah,  the 
non-mention  of  his  name  in  the  Book  of  Kings  is  a  circumstance  far 
from  easy  to  explain. 

*  Jer.  iv.  6,  A.V.,  "retire,  stay  not."     Comp.  Isa.  x.  24-31. 


xxii.,  xxiii.]  JOSIAH  377 

The  heart  of  the  kings  shall  perish,  and  the  heart  of 
the  princes ;  and  the  priests  shall  be  astonished,  and 
the  prophets  shall  wonder. 

**  For  thus  hath  the  Lord  said,  The  whole  land  shall 
be  desolate  ;  yet  will  I  not  make  a  full  end  " — and,  "  O 
Jerusalem,  wash  thine  heart  from  wickedness,  that  thou 
mayest  be  saved  I  "  ^ 

"  I  will  bring  a  nation  upon  you  from  far,  O  House 
of  Israel,  saith  the  Lord  :  it  is  a  mighty  nation,  it  is 
an  ancient  nation,  a  nation  whose  language  " — unlike 
that  of  the  Assyrians — "  thou  knowest  not,  neither 
understandest  what  they  say.  Their  quiver  is  an  open 
sepulchre,  they  are  all  mighty  men.  They  shall  batter 
thy  fenced  cities,  in  which  thou  trustest  with  weapons 
of  war."  ^ 

"  O  ye  children  of  Benjamin,  save  your  goods  by 
flight :  for  evil  is  imminent  from  the  North,  and  a  great 
destruction.  Behold,  a  people  cometh  from  the  North 
Country,  and  a  great  nation  shall  be  raised  from  the 
farthest  part  of  the  earth.  They  lay  hold  on  bow  and 
spear ;  they  are  cruel,  and  have  no  mercy  ;  their  voice 
roareth'like  the  sea ;  and  they  ride  upon  horses,  set  in 
array  as  men  for  war  against  thee,  O  daughter  of  Zion. 
We  have  heard  the  fame  thereof :  our  hands  wax  feeble."^ 

And  the  judgment  is  close  at  hand.  The  early 
blossoming  bud  of  the  almond  tree  is  the  type  of  its 
imminence.  The  seething  caldron,  with  its  front  turned 
from  the  North,  typifies  an  invasion  which  shall  soon 
boil  over  and  flood  the  land.* 

'  Jer.  iv.  7-27. 

*  Jer,  V.  15-17. 

'  Jer.  vi.  I,  22,  23,  24. 

'  The  almond  tree  {shdqdd)  "seems  to  be  awake  (shdqdd),  what- 
soever trees  are  still  sleeping  in  the  torpor  of  winter "  (Tristram 
Na(.  Hist,  of  the  Bible,  332;  Jer.  i.  11-14). 


37S  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

What  was  the  fierce  people  thus  vaguely  indicated 
as  coming  from  the  North  ?  The  foes  indicated  in 
these  passages  are  not  the  long-famiHar  Ass3Tians,  but 
the  Scythians  and  Cimmerians.^ 

As  yet  the  Hebrews  had  only  heard  of  them  by  dim 
and  distant  rumour.  When  Ezekiel  prophesied  they 
were  still  an  object  of  terror,  but  he  foresees  their 
defeat  and  annihilation.  They  should  be  gathered  into 
the  confines  of  Israel,  but  only  for  their  destruction.^ 
The  prophet  is  bidden  to  set  his  face  towards  Gog,  of 
the  land  of  Magog,  the  Prince  of  Rosh,^  Meshech,  and 
Tubal,  and  prophesy  against  him  that  God  would  turn 
him  about,  and  put  hooks  in  his  jaws,  and  drive  forth 
all  his  army  of  bucklered  and  sworded  horsemen,  the 
hordes  of  the  uttermost  part  of  the  North.  They 
should  come  like  a  storm  upon  the  mountains  of  Israel, 
and  spoil  the  defenceless  villages ;  but  they  should 
come  simply  for  their  own  destruction  by  blood  and 
by  pestilence.  God  should  smite  their  bows  out  of 
their  left  hands,  and  their  arrows  out  of  the  right,  and 
the  ravenous  birds  of  Israel  should  feed  upon  the 
carcases  of  their  warriors.     There  should  be  endless 


'  The  name  Kitnmerii  (on  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  Gimirrai)  is 
connected  with  Gomer.  The  Persians  call  them  Sakai  or  Scyths. 
The  nomad  Scyths  had  driven  the  Kimmerii  from  the  Dniester  while 
Psammetichus  was  King  of  Egypt.  For  allusions  to  this  see  Jer.  vi.  22 
seq.,  viii.  l6,  ix.  lO.  The  first  notice  of  them  is  in  an  inscription  of 
Esarhaddon,  b.c.  677,  who  says  that  he  defeated  "Tiushpa,  the 
Gimirrai,  a  roving  warrior,  whose  own  country  was  remote."  Zepha- 
niah  and  Jeremiah  were  certainly  thinking  of  the  Scythians  (Eichhorn, 
Hitzig,  Ewald ;  and  more  recently  Kuenen,  Ondersoek,  ii.  123;  Well- 
hausen,  Skizzen,  150)-  In  B.C.  626  they  could  not  have  consciously 
had  the  Chaldaeans  in  view,  though,  twenty-three  years  later,  Jeremiah 
may  have  had. 

-  See  Ezek.  xxxviii.,  xxxix. 
Ezek.  xxxviii.  2.     So  Gesenius,  Havernick,  etc.,  and  R.V. 


xxii.,  xxiii.]  JOSIAH  379 

bonfires  of  all  the  instruments  of  war,  and  the  place 
of  their  burial  should  be  called  "the  valley  of  the 
multitude  of  Gog." 

Much  of  this  is  doubtless  an  ideal  picture,  and  Ezekiel 
may  be  thinking  of  the  fall  of  the  Chaldseans,  But  the 
terms  he  uses  remind  us  of  the  dim  Northern  nomads, 
and  the  names  Rosh  and  Meshech  in  juxtaposition 
involuntarily  recall  those  of  Russia  and  Moscow/ 

Our  chief  historical  authority  respecting  this  influx 
of  Northern  barbarians  is  Herodotus.^  He  tells  us 
that  the  nomad  Scythians,  apparently  a  Turanian  race, 
who  may  have  been  subjected  to  the  pressure  of 
population,  swarmed  over  the  Caucasus,  dispossessed 
the  Cimmerians  (Gomer),  and  settled  themselves  in 
Saccasene,  a  province  of  Northern  Armenia.  From 
this  province  the  Scythians  gained  the  name  of  the 
Saqui.  The  name  of  Gog  seems  to  be  taken  from 
Gugu,  a  Scythian  prince,  who  was  taken  captive  by 
Assurbanipal  from  the  land  of  the  Saqui. ^  Magog  is 
perhaps  Mat-gugu,  "land  of  Gog."  These  rude,  coarse 
warriors,  like  the  hordes  of  Attila,  or  Zenghis  Khan,  or 
Tamerlane — who  were  descended  from  them — magne- 

'  The  form  in  the  Vulgate  and  the  Alexandrian  MS.  of  the  LXX.  is 
Mosech ;  in  the  Assyrian  inscription,  Muski.  As  far  back  as  II20 
Tiglath-Pileser  I.  had  overrun  Tubal  (the  Tublai,  Tabareni)  and 
Moschi,  between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Taurus.  They  were  neither 
Aryans  nor  Semites.  In  Gen.  x.  2;  I  Chron.  i.  5,  Gog,  Magog, 
Meshech,  and  Gomer  are  sons  of  Japheth.  They  are  referred  to  in 
Rev.  XX.  8. 

^  Herod.,  i.  74,  103-106,  iv.  1-22,  vii.  64;  Pliny,  H.  N.,  v.  16;  Jos., 
Antt.,  I.  vi.  1 ;  Syncellus,  Chronogl.,  i.  405. 

'  Sayce,  Ethnology  of  the  Bible ;  Records  of  the  Past,  ix.  40 ;  Schrader, 
K.  A.  T.,  159.  Some  identify  Gog  with  Gyges,  King  of  Lydia,  who 
was  killed  in  battle  against  the  Scythians,  but  whose  name  stood  for  a 
geographical  symbol  of  Asia  Minor,  sometimes  called  Lud.  It  is  said 
that  in  665  Gygcs  (Gugu)  sent  two  Scythian  chiefs  as  a  present  to 
Nineveh. 


38o  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

tised  the  imagination  of  civilised  people,  as  the  Huns 
did  in  the  fourth  century.^  They  overthrew  the  king- 
dom of  Urartis  (Armenia),  and  drove  the  ail-but 
exterminated  remnant  of  the  Moschi  and  Tabali  to  the 
mountain-fortresses  by  the  Black  Sea,  turning  them,  as 
it  were,  into  a  nation  of  ghosts  in  Sheol.^  Then  they 
burst  like  a  thunder-cloud  on  Mesopotamia,  desolating 
the  villages  with  their  arrow-flights,  but  too  unskilled 
to  take  fenced  towns.  They  swept  down  the  Shephelah 
of  Palestine,  and  plundered  the  rich  temple  of  Aphrodite 
(Astarte  Ourania)  at  Askelon,  thereby  incurring  the 
curse  of  the  goddess  in  the  form  of  a  strange  disease. 
But  on  the  borders  of  Egypt  they  were  diplomatically 
met  by  Psammetichus  (d.  6ii)  with  gifts  and  prayers. 
Judah  seems  only  to  have  suffered  indirectly  from  this 
invasion.  The  main  army  of  Scyths  poured  down  the 
maritime  plain,  and  there  was  no  sufficient  booty  to 
tempt  any  but  their. straggling  bands  to  the  barren  hills 
of  Judah. ^  It  was  the  report  of  this  over-flooding  from 
the  North  which  probably  evoked  the  alarming  pro- 
phecies of  Zephaniah  and  Jeremiah,  though  they 
found  their  clearer  fulfilment  in  the  invasion  of  the 
Chaldees. 


'  Hence,  in  2  Mace.  iv.  47,  3  Mace.  vii.  5,  Scythian  is  used  with  the 
modern  connotation  of  "Barbarian." 

-  Ezek.   xxxii.  26,  27;  Cheyne,  Jeremiah   ("Men  of  the    Bible") 

p.  31- 

^  Expositor,  2nd  series,  iv.  263  ;  Clieyne,  Jeremiah,  31.  Hitzig  and 
Ewald  (erroneously?)  refer  Psalms  Iv.,  lix.,  to  these  events,  and  it 
seems  also  to  be  an  error  to  suppose  that  the  later  name  of  Bethshan 
— Scythopolis — has  anything  to  do  with  this  incursion.  Like  the 
names  of  Pella,  Philadelphia,  etc.,  it  is  later  than  the  age  of 
Alexander  the  Great.  See  2  Mace.  xii.  30 ;  Jos.,  B.  J.,  II.  xviii.,  Vit.  vi. 
Perhaps  Scythopolis  is  a  corruption  of  Sikytopolis,  the  city  of 
Sikkuth;  or  Scythian  may  merely  stand  for  "Barbarian,"'  as  in 
3  Mace.  vii.  5 ;  Col.  iii.  1 1  (Cheyne,  I.e.). 


xxii.,  xxiii.]  JOSIAH  381 

II.  This  rush  of  wild  nomads  averted  for  a  time  the 
fate  o«f  Nineveh. 

The  Medes,  an  Aryan  people,  had  settled  south  of  the 
Caspian,  b.c.  790 ;  and  in  the  same  century  one  of  these 
tribes — the  Persians — had  settled  south-east  of  Elam 
the  northern  coast  of  the  Persian  Gulf  Cyaxares 
founded  the  Median  Empire;  and  attacked  Nineveh. 
The  Scythian  invasion  forced  him  to  abandon  the 
siege,  and  the  Scythians  burnt  the  Assyrian  palace 
and  plundered  the  ruins.  But  Cyaxares  succeeded  in 
intoxicating  and  murdering  the  Scythian  leaders  at  a 
banquet,  and  bribed  the  army  to  w^ithdraw.  Then 
Cyaxares,  with  the  aid  of  the  Babylonians  under 
Nabopolassarr  their  rebel  viceroy,  besieged  and  took 
Nineveh — probably  about  b.c.  608 — while  its  last  king 
and  his  captains  were  revelling  at  a  banquet.^ 

The  fall  of  Nineveh  was  not  astonishing.  The 
empire  had  long  been  "slowly  bleeding  to  death"  in 
consequence  of  its  incessant  wars.  The  city  deemed 
itself  impregnable  behind  walls  a  hundred  feet  high,  on 
which  three  chariots  could  drive  abreast,  and  mantled 
with  twelve  hundred  towers  ;  but  she  perished,  and  all 
the  nations — whom  she  had  known  how  to  crush,  but 
had  with  *'  her  stupid  and  cruel  tyranny  "  never  known 
how  to  govern — shouted  for  joy.  That  joy  finds  its 
triumphant  expression  in  more  than  one  of  the  pro- 
phets, but  specially  in  the  vivid  paean  of  Nahum.  His 
date  is  approximately  fixed  at  about  b.c.  660,  by  his 
reference  to  the  atrocities  inflicted  by  Assurbanipal  on 
the  Egyptian  city  of  No-Amon.  "  Art  thou  [Nineveh] 
better,"  he  asks,  "-than  No-Amon,  that  was  situate 
among  the  canals,  that  had  the  water  round  about  her, 

'  Nah.  i.  10,  ii.  5,  iii,  12 ;  Diod.  Sic,  ii.  26. 


382  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

whose  rampart  was  the  Nile,  and  her  wall  was  the 
waters  ?  Yet  she  went  mto  captivity  I  Her  young 
children  were  dashed  to  pieces  at  the  head  of  all  the 
streets  :  they  cast  lots  for  her  honourable  men,  and  all 
her  great  men  were  bound  in  chains.  Thou  also  shalt 
be  drunken  :  thou  shalt  faint  away,  thou  shalt  seek  a 
stronghold  because  of  the  enem}^"  ' 

All  the  details  of  her  fall  are  dim ;  but  Nineveh  was, 
in  the  language  of  the  prophets,  swept  with  the  besom 
of  destruction.  Her  ruins  became  stones  of  emptiness, 
and  the  line  of  confusion  was  stretched  over  her. 
Nahum  ends  with  the  cr}', — 

"  There  is  no  assuaging  of  thy  hurt ;  thy  wound  is  grievous  : 
All  that  hear  the  bruit  of  this,  clap  the  hands  over  thee  : 
For  upon  whom  hath  thy  wickedness  not  passed  continually  ?  " 

In  truth,  Assyria,  the  ferocious  foe  of  Israel,  of  Judah, 
and  all  the  world,  vanished  suddenly,  like  a  dream  when 
one  awaketh  ;  ^  and  those  who  passed  over  its  ruins,  like 
Xenophon  and  his  Ten  Thousand  in  b.c.  401,  knew  not 
what  they  were.^  Her  very  name  had  become  forgotten 
in  two  centuries.  ^^  Etiam  periere  ruince!^^  The  burnt 
relics  and  cracked  tablets  of  her  former  splendour  began 
to  be  revealed  to  the  world  once  more  in  1842,  and 
it  is  only  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  that 
the  fragments  of  her  histoiy  have  been  laboriously 
deciphered. 

III.  Such  were  the  events  witnessed  in  their  germs 
or  in  their  completion  by  the  contemporaries  of  Josiah 
and  the  prophets  who  adorned  his  reign.     It  was  during 

'  Nah.  iii.  8-1 1. 

^  Strabo,  xvi.  1,3:  riipavlffOri  iraoaxpyjt^a, 

^  Xen.,  Anab.,  Ill,  iv.  7. 


xxii.,  xxiii.]  JOSIAH  383 

this  period,  also,  that  the  power  to  whom  the  ultimate 
ruin  and  capitivity  of  Jerusalem  was  due  sprang  into 
formidable  proportions.  The  ultimate  scourge  of  God 
to  the  guilty  people  and  the  guilty  city  was  not  to  be 
the  Assyrian,  nor  the  Scythian,  nor  the  Egyptian,  nor 
any  of  the  old  Canaanite  or  Semitic  foes  of  Israel,  nor 
the  Phoenician,  nor  the  Philisti'he.  With  all  these  she 
had  long  contended,  and  held  her  own.  It  was  before 
the  Chaldee  that  she  was  doomed  to  fall,  and  the  Chaldee 
was  a  new  phenomenon  of  which  the  existence  had 
hardly  been  recognised  as  a  danger  till  the  warning 
prophecy  of  Isaiah  to  Hezekiah  after  the  embassy  of 
the  rebel  viceroy  Merodach-Baladan.^ 

It  is  to  Habakkuk,  in  prophecies  written  very  shortly 
after  the  death  of  Josiah,  that  we  must  look  for  the 
impression  of  terror  caused  by  the  Chaldees. 

Nabopolassar,"  sent  by  the  successor  of  Assurbanipal 
to  quell  a  Chaldaean  revolt,  seized  the  viceroyalty  of 
Babylon,  and  joined  Cyaxares  in  the  overthrow  of 
Nineveh.  From  that  time  Babylon  became  greater  and 
more  terrible  than  Nineveh,  whose  power  it  inherited. 
Habakkuk  (ii.  1-19)  paints  the  rapacity,  the  selfishness, 
the  inflated  ambition,  the  cruelty,  the  drunkenness,  the 
idolatry  of  the  Chaldaeans.  He  calls  them  (i.  5-1 1) 
a  rough  and  restless  nation,  frightful  and  terrible, 
whose  horsemen  were  swifter  than  leopards,  fiercer 
than  evening  wolves,  flying  to  gorge  on  prey  like  the 
vultures,  mocking  at  kings  and  princes,  and  flinging 
dust  over  strongholds.  Nor  has  he  the  least  comfort 
in  looking  on  their  resistless  fury,  except  the  deeply 


'  Chaldees,  Kardim,  Kasdim,  Kurds. 

*  Nabu-pal-ussur,  "Nebo  protect  the  son  "  b.c.  625-7.    J°^>  -^'?'A 

.  xi.  I  :  comn.  Ab..  i.  IQ. 


X.  xi.  I  :  comp,  Ap.,  i.  19, 


384  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

significant  oracle — an  oracle  which  contains  the  secret 
of  their  ultimate  doom — 

"Behold,  his  soul  is  puffed  up  ;  it  is  not  upright  in  him  : 
But  the  righteous  man  shall  live  by  his  fidelity." 

The  prophet  places  absolute  reliance  on  the  general 
principle  that  "  pride  and  violence  dig  their  own 
grave."  ^ 

'  Newman,  Hebrew  Monarchy,  p.  315. 


CHAPTER   XXXI 

JOSIAH'S  REFORMATION 
2  Kings  xxii.  8 — 20,  xxiii.  i — 25 

"And  the  works  of  Josias  were  upright  before  his  Lord  with  a 
heart  full  of  godliness." — I  Esdras  i.  23. 

"  From  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  Law,  and  the  Word  of  the  Lord 
from  Jerusalem." — Isa.  ii.  3. 

IT   is    from     the    Prophets — Zephaniah,    Jeremiah,  ^ 
Nahum,  Habakkuk,  Ezekiel — that  we  catch  almost 
our  sole  glimpses  of  the  vast  world-movements  of  the  j 
nations  which  must  have  loomed  large  on  the  minds  of  the  j 
King  of  Judah  and  of  all  earnest  politicians  in  that  day. 
As  they  did  not  directly  affect  the  destiny  of  Judah  till 
the  end  of  the  reign,  they  do  not  interest  the  historian 
of  the  Kings  or  the  later  Chronicler.     The  things  which 
rendered  the  reign  memorable  in  their  eyes  were  chiefly 
two — the  finding  of  "  the  Book  of  the  Law  "  in  the  House 
of  the  Lord,  and  the  consequent  religious  reformation. 

It  is  with  the  first  of  these  two  events  that  we  must 
deal  in  the  present  chapter. 

Josiah  began  to  reign  as  a  child  of  eight,  and  it  may  j 
be  that  the  emphatic  and  honourable  mention  of  hisf 
mother — Jedidah  ("  Beloved  "),  daughter  of  Adaiah  ofj 
Boscath — may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  he  owed  to  her] 
training  that  early  proclivity  to  faithfulness  which  earns ' 
for  him  the  unique  testimony,  that  he  not  only  "  walked 

•'\'  "^  c 


386  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

in  the  way  of  David  his  father/'  but  that  "  he  turned 
not  aside  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left." 

At  first,  of  course,  as  a  mere  child,  he  could  take  no 
very  active  steps.  The  Chronicler  says  that  at  sixteen 
he  began  to  show  his  devotion,  and  at  twenty  set 
himself  the  task  of  purging  Judah  and  Jerusalem  from 
the  taint  of  idols.  Things  were  in  a  bad  condition,  as 
we  see  from  the  bitter  complaints  and  denunciations 
of  Zephaniah  and  Jeremiah.  Idolatry  of  the  worst 
description  was  still  openly  tolerated.  But  Josiah  was 
supported  by  a  band  of  able  and  faithful  advisers. 
Shaphan,  grandfather  of  the  unhappy  Gedaliah — after- 
wards the  Chaldasan  viceroy  over  conquered  Judah — 
was  scribe ;  Hilkiah,  the  son  of  Shallum  and  the 
ancestor  of  Ezra,  was  the  high  priest.^  By  them  the 
king  was  assisted,  first  in  the  obliteration  of  the  pre- 
valent emblems  of  idolatry,  and  then  in  the  purification 
of  the  Temple.  Two  centuries  and  a  half  had  elapsed 
since  it  had  been  last  repaired  by  Joash,  and  it  must 
have  needed  serious  restoration  during  long  years  of 
neglect  in  the  reigns  of  Ahaz,  of  Manasseh,  and  of 
Amon.  Subscriptions  were  collected  from  the  people 
by  *'  the  keepers  of  the  door,"  and  were  freely  entrusted 
to  the  workmen  and  their  overseers,  who  employed  them 
faithfully  in  the  objects  for  which  they  were  designed.'^ 

The  repairs  led  to  an  event  of  momentous  influence 
on  all  future  time.  During  the  cleansing  of  the  Temple 
Hilkiah  came  to  Shaphan,  and  said,  **  I  have  found  the 
Book  of  the  Law  in  the  House  of.  the  Lord."     Perhaps 

'  2  Kings  xxiii.  4.  We  have  here  the  first  mention  of  "  the  second 
priest  "  (if,  with  Gratz,  \vc  read  Cohen  mishnch,  as  in  2  Kings  xxv. 
18  ;  Jer.  Hi.  24).  In  later  days  he  was  called  "the  Sagan."  At  this 
time  he  probably  acted  as  "  Captain  of  the  Temple  "  (Gratz,  ii.  319). 

^Comp.  2  Kings  xii.  15,  where  we  find  the  same  remark. 


xxii.8-2o,xxiii.  1-25.]    JOSIAH'S  REFORMATION  387 

the  copy  of  the  book  had  been  placed  by  some  priest's 
hand  beside  the  Ark,  and  had  been  discovered  during 
the  removal  of  the  rubbish  which  neglect  had  there 
accumulated.  Shaphan  read  the  book ;  and  when  next 
he  had  to  see  the  king  to  tell  him  about  the  progress 
of  the  repairs,  he  said  to  him,  *'  Hilkiah  the  priest  hath 
handed  me  a  book."  Josiah  bade  him  read  some  of  it 
aloud.  It  is  evident  that  he  read  the  curses  contained 
in  Deut.  xxviii.  They  horrified  the  pious  monarch  ;  for 
all  that  they  contained,  and  the  laws  to  which  they 
were  appended,  were  wholly  new  to  him.  He  might 
well  be  amazed  that  a  code  so  solemn,  and  purporting 
to  have  emanated  from  Moses,  should,  in  spite  of 
maledictions  so  fearful,  have  become  an  absolute  dead 
letter.  In  deep  alai^m  he  sent  the  priest,  the  scribe 
Shaphan,  with  his  son  Ahikam,  and  Abdon,  the  son  of 
Micaiah,  and  Asahiah,  a  court  official,  to  inquire  of 
Jehovah,  whose  great  anger  could  not  but  be  kindled 
against  king  and  people  by  the  obliteration  and 
nullity  of  His  law.  They  consulted  Huldah,  the  only 
prophetess  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament,  except 
Miriam  and  Deborah.^  She  was  the  wife  of  Shallum 
and  keeper  of  the  priests'  robes,^  and  she  lived  in  the 
suburbs  of  the  city.''  Her  answer  was  an  uncom- 
promising menace.     All  the  curses  which  the  king  had 

'  Exod.  XV.  20;  Judg.  iv.  4;  Isa.  viii.  3.  "The  prophetess  "  seems 
to  mean  "  prophet's  wife."     Noadiah  was  a  false  prophetess. 

'^  Exod.  xxviii.  2,  etc. 

■''  2  Kings  xxii.  14.  Heb.,  mishneh,  lit.  "second";  A.V.,  "the  col- 
lege"; R.V.,  "the  second  quarter,"  Perhaps  it  means  "the  lower 
city  "  (Neh.  xi.  9 ;  Zeph.  i.  10).  It  puzzled  the  LXX. :  sv  t^  ixaaevq,. 
Vulg.,  in  secunda.  Jerome  says,  "  Haud  dubium  quin  urbis  partem 
significet  quce  interiori  mtiro  vallabatur."  Comp.  Zeph.  i.  lO,  "  an 
howling  from  the  second"  {i.e.,  quarter  of  the  city) ;  Neh.  xi.  9,  where, 
for  "  second  over  the  city'^  (A.  and  R.V.),  read  "  over  the  second  part  of 
the  city." 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


heard  against  the  place  and  people  should  be  pitilessly 
fulfilled, — only,  as  the  king  had  showed  a  tender  heart, 
and  had  humbled  himself  before  Jehovah,  he  should  go 
to  his  own  grave  in  peace. ^ 

Thereupon  the  king  summoned  to  the  Temple  a  great 
assembly  of  priests,  prophets,  and  all  the  people,  and, 
standing  by  the  pillar  (or  "  on  the  platform  ")  ^  in  the 
entrance  of  the  inner  court,  read  "all  the  words  of  the 
Book  of  the  Covenant  which  had  been  found  in  the 
House  of  the  Lord  "  in  their  ears,  and  joined  with 
them  in  "  the  covenant  "  to  obey  the  hitherto  unknown 
or  totally  forgotten  laws  which  were  inculcated  in  the 
newly  discovered  volume. 

Immediate  action  followed.  The  priests  were  ordered 
to  bring  out  of  the  Temple  all  the  vessels  made  for 
Baal,  for  the  Asherah,  and  for  the  host  of  heaven  ; 
they  were  burnt  outside  Jerusalem  in  the  Valley  of 
Kedron,  and  their  ashes  taken  to  Bethel.^  The 
chemarim  of  the  high  places  were  suppressed,  as  well 
as  all  other  idolatrous  priests  who  burnt  incense  to 
the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  the  Hyades,  and  the  heavenly 
bodies.*      The   Asherah    itself  was    taken    out  of  the 


'  Another  reading  is  "  in  Jerusalem,"  which  gets  over  an  historic 
difficulty. 

"^  Comp.  2  Kings  xi.  14  ;  LXX.,  eirl  tou  cttijXov  ;  Heb.,  al-ha-ammtid ; 
Vulg.,  super  gradutn. 

^  2  Kings  xxiii.  4;  for  "in  the  fields  of  Kedron"  one  version  has 
ei'  ry  e^TTi/pto-iaffj  toO  x^'Ma/^poi',  "in  the  burning-place  of  the  wady," — 
perhaps  reading  bemisrephoth  for  bishedamoth,  and  alluding  to  lime- 
kilns in  the  wady.  It  is  surprising  that  they  should  carry  the 
ashes  "to  Bethel."  Thenius  suggests  the  reading  PXTf?,  "place 
of  execution"  (lit.,  "house  of  nothingness"). 

*  Hos.  X.  5  ;  Zeph.  i.  4  (the  only  other  places  where  the  word 
occurs).  The  delevit  of  the  Vulgate  (2  Kings  xxiii.  5)  only  means 
that  he  put  them  down,  and  the  KareKavae  of  the  LXX.  should  be 
Kar^avae. 


xxii.8-2o,  xxiii.  I-2S.]    JOSIAH'S  REFORMATION  389 


Temple,  and  it  is  truly  amazing  that  we  should  find 
it  there  so  late  in  Josiah's  reign.  He  burnt  it  in  the 
Kedron,  stamped  it  to  powder,  and  scattered  the  powder 
"  on  the  graves  of  the  common  people."  The  Chronicler 
says  "  on  the  graves  of  them  that  had  sacrificed "  to 
the  idols  ^ ; — but  this  is  an  inexplicable  statement,  since 
it  is  (as  Professor  Lumby  says)  very  improbable  that 
idolaters  had  a  separate  burial-place.  It  is  equally 
shocking,  and  to  us  incomprehensible,  to  read  that  the 
houses  of  the  degraded  Oedeshim  still  stood,  not  "  by 
the  Temple"  (A.V.),  but  "m  the  Temple,""'  and  that 
in  these  houses,  or  chambers,  the  women  still  **  wove 
embroideries^  for  the  Asherah."  What  was  Hilkiah 
doing  ?  If  the  priests  of  the  high  places  were  so 
guilty  from  Geba  to  Beersheba,  did  no  responsibility 
attach  to  the  high  priest  and  other  priests  of  the 
Temple  who  permitted  the  existence  of  these  enormities, 
not  only  in  the  hamoth  at  the  city  gates,*  but  in  the 
very  covirts  of  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  House  ?  If 
the  priests  of  the  immemorial  shrines  were  degraded 
from  their  prerogatives,  and  were  not  allowed  to  come 
up  to  the  altar  of  Jehovah  in  Jerusalem,  by  what  law 
of  justice  were  they  to  be  regarded  as  so  immeasurably 
inferior  to  the  highest  members  of  their  own  order, 
who,  for  years  together,  had  permitted  the  worship  of 
a  wooden  phallic  emblem,  and  the  existence  of  the 
worst  heathen  abominations    within   the   very  Temple 

'  Comp.  Jer.  ii.  23,  where  the  LXX.  has  iv  t^j  woXvavSpiii).  In 
2  Chron,  xxxiv.  4,  perhaps  the  true  reading  is,  not  Bem-ha-nm,  but 
Beni-hinnoiii — which  would  mean  that  he  scattered  the  dust  in  the 
gehenna  of  Jerusalem.     Comp.  i  Kings  xv.  13. 

^  For  these  Galli.  see  Seneca,  De  Vit.  Beat.,  27  ;  Plinj',  H.  N.,  xi.  49. 

^  Heb.,  bathint,  lit.  "  tents  "  or  "  houses  "  ;  Vulg.,  quasi  domtmculas 

*  In  2  Kings  xxiii.  8,  Geiger  would  read  "the  high  places  of  the 
satyrs"  (DnTJi'). 


390  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

of  the  Lord  ?  Ever}''  honest  reader  must  admit  that 
there  are  inexpHcable  difficulties  and  uncertainties  in 
these  ancient  histories,  and  that  our  knowledge  of  the 
exact  circumstances — especially  in  all  that  regards  the 
priests  and  Levites,  who,  in  the  Chronicles,  are  their 
own  ecclesiastical  historians — must  remain  extremely 
imperfect. 

And  what  can  be  meant  by  the  clause  that  the 
degraded  priests  of  the  old  high  places,  though  they 
were  not  allowed  to  serve  at  the  great  altar,  yet  "  did 
eat  of  the  unleavened  bread  among  their  brethren  "  ? 
Unleavened  bread  was  only  eaten  at  the  Passover ;  and 
when  there  ivas  a  Passover,  was  eaten  by  all  alike. 
Perhaps  the  reading  for  "  unleavened  bread "  should 
be  (priestly)  "  portions  " — a  reading  found  by  Geiger 
in  an  old  manuscript. 

Continuing  his  work,  Josiah  defiled  Tophet ;  ^  took 
away  the  horses  given  by  the  kings  of  Judah  to  the 
sun,  which  were  stabled  beside  the  chamber  of  the 
eunuch  Nathan-Melech  in  the  precincts  ;  ^  and  burnt  the 
sun-chariots  in  the  fire.  He  removed  the  altars  to  the 
stars  on  the  roof  of  the  upper  chamber  of  Ahaz,^  and 
ground  them  to  powder.  He  also  destroyed  those  of 
his  grandfather  Manasseh  in  the  two  Temple  courts— 
which  we  supposed  to  have  been  removed  by  Manasseh 
in  his  repentance — and  threw  the  dust  into  the  Kedron. 
He  defiled  the  idolatrous  shrines  reared  by  Solomon 
to  the  deities  of  Sidon,  Ammon,  and  Moloch,  broke  the 
pillars,  cut  down  the  Asherim,  and  filled  their  places 

'  Usually  derived  (as  by  Selden  and  Milton)  from  toph,  "  drum," 
but  perhaps  from  tuph  (to  spit  in  sign  of  abhorrence). 

"^  Parvar — perhaps  "open  portico."  Renan  connects  the  word 
with  the  Greek  weplfioXos.  On  horses  dedicated  to  the  sun,  see  Xen., 
Cyrop.,  viii.  3,  5,  12;  Anab.,  iv.  5. 

^  See  Zeph.  i.  5  ;  Jer.  xix.  13,  xxxii.  29. 


xxii.  8-20,  xxiii.  1-25.]    JOSIAH'S  REFORMATION  391 

with  dead  men's  bones.^  Travelling  northwards,  he 
burnt,  destroyed,  and  stamped  to  powder  the  altars  and 
the  Asherim  at  Bethel,  and  burnt  upon  the  altars 
the  remains  found  in  the  sepulchres,^  only  leaving 
undisturbed  the  remains  of  the  old  prophet  from 
Judah,  and  of  the  prophet  of  Samaria.''  He  then 
destroyed  the  other  Samaritan  shrines,  exercising  an 
undisputed  authority  over  the  Northern  Kingdom.  The 
mixed  inhabitants  did  not  interfere  with  his  proceedings  ; 
and  in  the  declining  fortunes  of  Nineveh,  the  Assyrian 
viceroy — if  there  was  one — did  not  dispute  his  authority. 
Lastly,  in  accordance  with  the  fierce  injunction  of 
Deut.  xvii.  2-5,  "  he  slew  all  the  priests  of  the  high 
places "  on  their  own  altars,  burnt  men's  bones  upon 
them,  and  returned  to  Jerusalem. 

It  is  very  difficult,  with  the  milder  notions  which 
we  have  learnt  from  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  to  look 
with  approval  on  the  recrudescence  of  the  Elijah- spirit 
displayed  by  the  last  proceeding.  But  many  centuries 
were  to  elapse,  even  under  the  Gospel  Dispensation, 
before  men  learnt  the  sacred  principle  of  the  early 
Christians  that  "violence  is  hateful  to  God."  Josiah 
must  be  judged  by  a  more  lenient  judgment,  and  he 
was  obeying  a  mandate  found  in  the  new  Book  oi 
the  Law.     But  the  question  arises  whether  the  fierce 

'  2  Kings  xxiii.  13  :  "  The  Mount  of  Corruption  " ;  Vulg.,  Mons 
offensionis;  LXX.,  tov  6povs  rod  MoffddO.  Some  conjecture  that 
Maschith  may  be  a  derisive  change  for  some  word  which  meant 
"anointing"  (from  being  the  Oil  Mountain,  Har  ham-niischchah). 

'"  In  burning  the  bones  of  the  dead,  he  violated  all  Jewish  feeling. 
Amos  (ii.  i)  had  severely  rebuked  this  form  of  revenge  and  insult 
even  in  the  case  of  the  heathen  King  of  Moab.  Bones  defiled  the 
touch  (Num.  xix.  16;  Herod.,  iv.  73).  Josiah's  question  at  Bethel 
was,  "What />«7/rtr  is  that  ?"  (fczyww).  UX.'K.,  (XKOweKov.  Comp.  Gen, 
XXXV.  20. 

*  I  Kings  xiii.  29-31. 


392  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

commands  of  Deuteronomy  were  ever  intended  to  be 
taken  au  pied  de  la  lettre.  May  not  Deut.  xiii.  6-i8 
have  been  intended  to  express  in  a  concrete  but  ideal 
form  the  spirit  of  execration  to  be  entertained  towards 
idolatry  ?  Perhaps  in  thinking  so  we  are  only  guilty 
of  an  anachronism,  and  are  applying  to  the  seventh 
century  before  Christ  the  feelings  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury after  Christ. 

After  this  Josiah  ordered  the  people  to  keep  a  Deuter- 
onomic  Passover,  such  as  we  are  told — and  as  all  the 
circumstances  prove — had  not  been  kept  from  the  days 
of  the  Judges.  The  Chronicler  revels  in  the  details  of 
this  Passover,  and  tells  us  that  Josiah  gave  the  people 
thirty  thousand  lambs  and  kids,  and  three  thousand 
bullocks  ;  and  his  priests  gave  two  thousand  six  hundred 
small  cattle,  and  three  hundred  oxen  ;  and  the  chief  of 
the  Levites  gave  the  Levites  five  thousand  small  cattle, 
and  five  hundred  oxen.  He  goes  on  to  describe  the 
slaying,  sprinkling  of  blood,  flaying,  roasting,  boiling  in 
pots,  pans,  and  caldrons,  and  attention  paid  to  the  burnt- 
offerings  and  the  fat ;  ^  but  neither  the  historians  nor 
the  chroniclers,  either  here  or  anywhere  else,  say  one 
word  about  the  Day  of  Atonement,  or  seem  aware  of  its 
existence.  It  belongs  to  the  Post-Exilic  Priestly  Code, 
and  is  not  alluded  to  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy. 

Continuing  his  task,  he  put  away  them  that  had  fami- 
liar spirits  (obotJi),  and  the  wizards,  and  the  teraphtm, 
with  a  zeal  shown  by  no  king  before  or  after  him  ;  but 
Jehovah  "  turned  not  from  the  fierceness  of  His  anger, 
because  of  all  the  provocations  which  Manasseh  had 
provoked  Him  withal."  Evil,  alas  1  is  more  diffusive, 
and  in  some  senses  more  permanent,  than  good,  because 
of  the  perverted  bias  of  human  nature.     Judah  and 

•  2  Chron.  xxxv.  1-19. 


xxii,8-20,  xxiii.  1-25.]    JOSIAH'S  REFORMATION  393 


Jerusalem  had  been  radically  corrupted  by  the  apostate 
son  of  Hezekiah,  and  it  may  be  that  the  sudden  and 
high-handed  reformation  enforced  by  his  grandson  de- 
pended too  exclusively  on  the  external  impulse  given 
to  it  by  the  king  to  produce  deep  effects  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people.  Certain  it  is  thqt  even  Jeremiah — though 
he  was  closely  connected  with  the  finders  of  the  book, 
had  perhaps  been  present  when  the  solemn  league 
and  covenant  was  taken  in  the  Temple,  and  lived 
through  the  reformation  in  which  he  probably  took  a 
considerable  part — was  profoundly  dissatisfied  with  the 
results.  It  is  sad  and  singular  that  such  should  have 
been  the  case  ;  for  in  the  first  flush  of  the  new  enthu- 
siasm he  had  written,  "  Cursed  be  the  man  that  heareth 
not  the  words  of  this  covenant,  which  I  commanded 
your  fathers  in  the  day  that  I  brought  them  forth  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt,  saying,  *  Obey  My  voice.' "  ^  Nay, 
it  has  been  inferred  that  he  was  even  an  itinerant 
preacher  of  the  newly  found  law  ;  for  he  writes  :  "And 
the  Lord  said  unto  me,  *  Proclaim  all  these  words  in  the 
cities  of  Judah,  and  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  saying, 
Hear  ye  the  woi^ds  of  this  covenant,  and  do  them.'  "  ^ 

The  style  of  Deuteronomy,  as  is  well  known,  shows 
remarkable  affinities  with  the  style  of  Jeremiah.  Yet 
it  is  clear  that  after  the  death  of  Josiah  the  prophet 

'  Jer.  xi.  3,  4.  Since,  in  this  part  of  my  subject,  I  make  frequent 
reference  to  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  which  are  indispensable  to 
the  right  understanding  of  the  history,  I  may  here  say  that  modern 
critics  (Cheyne  and  others)  arrange  them  as  follows : — 

In  the  reign  o{ Josiah,  Jer.  ii.  i-iii.  5,  iii-  6-vi.  30,  vii.  I-ix.  25,  xi.  1-17. 

In  the  reign  oi  Jchoiakim,  xxvi.  2-6,  xlvi.  2-12,  xxv.,  xxxv.,  and 
possibly  xvi.  i,  xviii.  19-27,  xiv.,  xv.,  xviii.,  xi.  l8-xii.  17. 

In  the  reign  oijehoiachiyi,  x.  17-23,  xiii. 

In  the  reign  o{  Zcdekiah,  xxii.-xxiv.,  xxvii.-xxix,  I-II  (?),  Hi. 

In  the  Exile,  xxxix.-xliv. 

^  Sec  Cheyne,  Jeremiah,  p.  56,  id.  6. 


394  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

became  utterly  disillusioned  with  the  outcome  of  the 
whole  movement.  It  proved  itself  to  be  at  once  evan- 
escent and  unreal.  The  people  would  not  give  up 
their  beloved  local  shrines.^  The  law,  as  Habakkuk 
says  (i.  4),  became  torpid  ;  judgment  went  not  forth  to 
victory ;  the  wicked  compassed  about  the  righteous, 
and  judgment  was  perverted.  It  was  easy  to  obey  the 
external  regulations  of  Deuteronomy ;  it  was  far  more 
difficult  to  be  true  to  its  noble  moral  precepts.  The 
reformation  of  Josiah,  so  violent  and  radical,  proved 
to  be  only  skin-deep ;  and  Jeremiah,  with  bitter  dis- 
appointment, found  it  to  be  so.  External  decency 
might  be  improved,  but  rites  and  forms  are  nothing 
to  Him  who  searcheth  the  heart.^  There  was,  in  fact, 
an  inherent  danger  in  the  place  assumed  by  the  newly 
discovered  book.  "  Since  it  was  regarded  as  a  State 
authority,  there  early  arose  a  kind  of  book-science,  with 
its  pedantic  pride  and  erroneous  learned  endeavours  to 
interpret  and  apply  the  Scriptures.  At  the  same  time 
there  arose  also  a  new  kind  of  hypocrisy  and  idolatry 
of  the  letter,  through  the  new  protection  which  the 
State  gave  to  the  religion  of  the  book  acknowledged  by 
the  law.  Thus  scholastic  wisdom  came  into  conflict 
with  genuine  prophecy."  ^ 

How  entirely  the  improvement  of  outward  worship 
failed  to  improve  men's  hearts  the  prophet  testifies,* 
"The  sin  of  Judah,"  he  says,  "is  written  with  a  pen  of 

'  Canon  Cheyne  shows  that  even  Mohammed  could  not  persuade 
the  Qurashites  wholly  to  give  up  their  black  stone  at  the  Kaaba,  and 
their  dolmens  and  sacred  trees  {id.  103).  He  left  the  aiifab,  or  sacri- 
ficial stones  (matstsebotlt),  though  he  warns  his  followers  against  them 
{Quran,  v.  92). 

'^  Jer.  xvii.  9-1 1. 

'  Ewald,  The  Prophets,  iii.  63,  64, 

*  Jer.  xvii.  1-4. 


xxii.8-20,  xxiii.  1-25.]    JOSIAH'S  REFORMATION  395 


iron,  and  with  the  point  of  a  diamond  :  it  is  graven 
upon  the  tablets  of  their  hearts,  and  upon  the  horns  of 
their  altars,  and  their  Asherim  by  the  green  trees  ^  upon 
the  high  hills.  O  My  mountain  in  the  field,  I  will 
cause  thee  to  serve  thine  enemies  in  the  land  thou 
knowest  not :  for  ye  have  Jcindled  a  fire  in  Mine 
eyes,  which  shall  burn  for  ever."  While  Josiah  lived 
this  apostasy  was  secret ;  but  as  soon  as  he  died  the 
people  "  turned  again  to  folly,"  ^  and  committed  all  the 
old  idolatries  except  the  worship  of  Moloch.  There 
arose  a  danger  lest  even  the  moderate  ritualism  of 
Deuteronomy  should  be  perverted  and  exaggerated 
into  mere  formality.  In  the  energy  of  his  indignation 
against  this  abuse,  Jeremiah  has  to  uplift  his  voice 
against  any  trust  even  in  the  most  decided  injunctions 
of  this  newly  discovered  law.  He  was  "  a  second  Amos 
upon  a  higher  platform."  The  Deuteronomic  Law  did 
not  as  yet  exhibit  the  concentrated  sacerdotalism  and 
ritualism  which  mark  the  Priestly  Code,  to  which  it  is 
far  superior  in  every  way.  It  is  still  prophetic  in  its 
tone.  It  places  social  interests  above  rubrics  of  worship. 
It  expresses  the  fundamental  religious  thought  "  that 
Jehovah  is  in  no  sense  inaccessible  ;  that  He  can  be 
approached  immediately  by  all,  and  without  sacerdotal 
intervention  ;  that  He  asks  nothing  for  Himself,  but 
asks  it   as  a   religious  duty  that  man    should    render 

'  The  Qurashites  and  other  heathen  Arabs  accounted  holy  a  large 
green  tree,  and  every  year  had  a  sacrifice  in  its  honour.  "  On  the 
way  to  Hunain  we  called  to  God's  Messenger  (Mohammed)  that  he 
should  appoint  for  us  such  trees.  But  he  was  terrified,  and  said, 
'  Lord  God,  Lord  God  !  Ye  speak  even  as  the  Israelites  ...  ye  are 
still  in  ignorance, — thus  are  heathen  enslaved  '  "  (Vakidi,  Book  of  the 
Campaigns  of  Cod's  Messenger,  quoted  by  Cheyne,  Jeremiah,  p.  103, 
from  Wtrllhausen). 

'"  Psalm  Ixxxv.  8. 


396  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

unto  man  what  is  right ;  that  His  Will  lies  not  in  any 
known  height,  but  in  the  moral  sphere  which  is  known 
and  understood  by  all."^  The  book  ordained  certain 
sacrifices ;  yet  Jeremiah  says  with  startling  emphasis, 
**  To  what  purpose  cometh  there  to  Me  frankincense 
from  Sheba,  and  the  sweet  calamus  from  a  far  country  ? 
Your  burnt-offerings  are  not  acceptable,  nor  your 
sacrifices  pleasant  unto  Me." "  Therefore  He  bids 
them,  "  Put  your  burnt-offerings  to  your  sacrifices,  and 
eat  them  as  flesh  " — i.e.,  "  Throw  all  your  offerings  into 
a  mass,  and  eat  them  at  your  pleasure  (regardless  of 
sacerdotal  rules)  :  they  have  neither  any  inherent  sanc- 
tity nor  any  secondary  importance  from  the  characters 
of  the  offerers."^  And  in  a  still  more  remarkable 
passage,  "  f^or  I  spake  not  iinto  your  fathers,  nor  com- 
manded them  in  the  day  that  I  brought  them  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  concerning  burnt-offerings  and  sacrifices :  but 
this  thing  I  commanded  them,  saying,  'Obey  My  voice.'"* 
Nay,  in  the  most  emphatic  ordinances  of  Deuteronomy 
he  found  that  the  people  had  created  a  new  peril. 
They  were  putting  a  particularistic  trust  in  Jehovah, 
as  though  He  were  a  respecter  of  persons,  and  they 
His  favourites.  They  fancied,  as  in  the  days  of  Micah, 
that  it  was  enough  for  them  to  claim  His  name,  and 

'  Deut.  XXX.  II-14.     See  Wellhausen,  p.  165. 

^  Jer.  vi.  20.  The  passages  of  Jeremiah  which  seem  of  a  different 
spirit  may  have  been  added  by  later  hands — e.£^.,  xxxiii.  18,  which  is 
not  in  the  LXX. 

*  Jer.  vii.  21  ;  Ewald ;  and  Cheyne,  I.e.  120.  So  the  Jews  seem  to 
have  understood  it,  for  the}^  appoint  this  passage  to  be  read  on  the 
Haphtara  after  the  Parashah  about  sacrifices  from  Leviticus. 

■*  Jer.  vii.  22,  23.  This  alone  would  show  that  Jeremiah  did  not 
(as  earlier  critics  thought)  write  "  Deteronomy,"  in  spite  of  the 
numerous  close  resemblances  in  phraseology.  Thus,  Jeremiah  often 
denounces  the  priests  (i.  18,  ii.  8-26,  iv.  9,  v.  31,  viii.  I,  xiii.  13, 
xxxii.  32).     Cheyne,  p.  82. 


xxii.  8-20,  xxiii.  1-25-]    JOSIAH'S  REFORMATION  397 

bribe  Him  with  sacrifices.^  Above  all,  they  boasted  of 
and  relied  upon  the  possession  of  His  Temple,  and 
placed  their  trust  on  the  punctual  observance  of 
external  ceremonies.  All  these  sources  of  vain  con- 
fidence it  was  the  duty  of  Jeremiah  rudely  to  shatter 
to  pieces.  Standing  at  the  gates  of  the  Lord's  House, 
he  cried  :  "Trust  ye  not  in  lying  words,  saying,  'The 
Temple  of  the  Lord  !  the  Temple  of  the  Lord  !  the 
Temple  of  the  Lord,  are  these  ! '  Behold,  ye  trust  in 
lying  words,  that  cannot  profit.  Will  ye  steal,  murder, 
commit  adultery,  swear  falsely,  burn  incense  unto  Baal, 
and  walk  after  other  gods ;  and  come  and  stand  before 
Me  in  this  house,  whereupon  My  name  is  called,  and 
say,  'We  are  delivered,'  that  ye  may  do  all  these 
abominations  ?  Is  this  house  become  a  den  of  robbers 
in  your  eyes  ?  But  go  ye  now  to  My  place  which  was 
in  Shiloh,  where  I  caused  My  name  to  dwell  at  the 
first,  and  see  what  1  did  to  it  for  the  wickedness  of 
My  people.  I  will  do  unto  this  house  as  I  have  done 
to  Shiloh  ;  and  I  will  cast  you  out  of  My  sight,  as  I  have 
cast  out  the  whole  house  of  Ephraim."  ^ — Yet  all  hope 
was  not  extinguished  for  ever.  The  Scythian  might 
disappear  ;  the  Babylonian  might  come  in  his  place ; 
but  one  day  there  should  be  a  new  covenant  of  pardon 
and  restitution ;  and  as  had  been  promised  in  Deuter- 
onomy, "  all  should  know  Jehovah,  from  the  least  to 
the  greatest." 

At  last  he  even  prophesies  the  entire  future  annul- 
ment of  the  solemn  covenant  made  on  the  basis  of 
Deuteronomy,  and  sa3'S  that  Jehovah  will  make  a  new 
covenant  with  His  people,  not  according  to  the  cove- 
nant which  He  made  with  their  fathers.^     And  in  his 


'  Mic.  iii.  II.  ^  Jer.  xxxi.  31,  32. 

'^  Jer.  vii.  4,  8-15. 


398  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


final  estimate  of  King  Josiah  after  his  death,  he  does 
not  so  much  as  mention  his  reformation,  his  iconoclasm, 
his  sweeping  zeal,  or  his  enforcement  of  the  Deutero- 
nomic  Law,  but  only  says  to  Jehoiakim  : — 

"  *  Did  not  thy  father  eat  and  drink,  and  do  judgment 
and  justice  ? — then  it  was  well  with  him.  He  judged 
the  cause  of  the  poor  and  needy ;  then  it  was  well. 
Was  not  this  to  know  Me  ? '  saith  the  Lord."  ^ 

Whether  because  its  methods  were  too  violent,  or 
because  it  only  affected  the  surface  of  men's  lives, 
or  because  the  people  were  not  really  ripe  for  it,  or 
because  no  reformation  can  ever  succeed  which  is 
enforced  by  autocracy,  not  spread  by  persuasion  and 
conviction,  it  is  certain  that  the  first  glamour  of  Josiah's 
movement  ended  in  disillusionment.  A  religion  violently 
imposed  from  without  as  a  state-religion  naturally  tends 
to  hypocrisy  and  externalism.  What  Jehovah  required 
was,  not  a  changed  method  of  worship,  but  a  changed 
heart ;  and  this  the  reformation  of  Josiah  did  not 
produce.  It  has  often  been  so  in  human  history. 
Failure  seems  to  be  written  on  many  of  the  most  laud- 
able human  efforts.  Nevertheless,  truth  ultimately 
prevails.  Isaiah  was  murdered,  and  Urijah,  and 
Jeremiah.  Savonarola  was  burnt,  and  Huss,  and  many 
a  martyr  more ;  but  the  might  of  priestcraft  was  at  last 
crippled,  to  be  revived,  we  hope,  no  more,  either  by 
open  violence  or  secret  apostasy. 

"Then  to  side  with  Truth  is  noble,  when  we  share  her  wretched 
crust, 
Ere  her  cause  bring  fame  and  profit,  and  'tis  prosperous  to  be  just ; 
Then  it  is  the  brave  man  chooses,  while  the  coward  stands  aside,    •• 
Doubting  in  his  abject  spirit  till  his  Lord  is  crucified, 
And  the  multitude  make  virtue  of  the  faith  they  have  denied." 

'  Jer.  xxii.  15,  16. 


NOTE    TO   CHAPTER  XXXI  399 


NOTE   TO   CHAPTER  XXXI. 

"Jehovah  is  our  Lawgiver." — ISA,  vxxiii.  22. 

What  was  the  Book  of  the  Law  which  Hilkiah  found  in  the 
Temple  ? 

The  great  majority  of  eminent  modern  critics  have  now  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  the  kernel  of  the  Book  of  Deuter- 
onomj'.  Nor  is  this  in  any  sense  a  mere  modern  notion.  It 
occurs  as  far  back  as  St.  Jerome  {Adv.Jovm.,  i.  5)  and  St.  Chryso- 
stom  {Horn,  in  Matt.,  ix.,  p.  135,  B.    See  W.  Rob.  Smith,  p.  258). 

It  is  no  part  of  my  immediate  duty  to  argue  this  question,  but 
I  may  state  that  the  arguments  for  this  conclusion  are  partly 
historical,  partly  literary,  and  partly  depend  on  internal  evidence. 

I.  As  regards  the  literary  argument,  it  is  maintained  that — • 

1.  The  full,  rounded,  rhetorical  style  of  Deuteronomy,  so 
widely  different  from  the  extreme  dryness  of  other  parts  of  the 
Torah,  could  not  have  been  as  yet  developed  in  the  days  of 
Moses,  and  required  the  slow  training  of  centuries  for  its 
perfection.  It  is  a  new  phenomenon,  and  differs  widely  from 
earlier  prophetic  writings,  such  as  those  of  Amos  and  Hosea. 

2.  The  style  and  language  of  the  Deuteronomist  are  so  marked, 
that  they  can  scarcely  escape  an  intelligent  reader  of  the 
English  Version.  Riehm  enumerates  sixty-four  characteristic 
words  or  phrases.  Their  significance  lies  in  the  fact  that  they 
express  obvious  ideas,  and  are  not  names  for  special  objects,  which 
force  a  writer  to  use  peculiar  words.  The  style  closely  resembles 
in  many  phrases  and  particulars  the  style  of  Jeremiah,  and  of 
him  alone  among  the  prophets.  "Even  supposing  that  no 
historic  text,"  it  has  been  said,  "  taught  us  that  the  articles  of 
Smalkald  were  the  work  of  Luther,  we  should  still  have  the  right 
to  affirm  that  these  articles  closely  resemble  the  ideas  of  Luther, 
and  could  hardly  have  been  published  without  his  cognisance." 

II.  As  regards  historical  evidence,  we  observe  that — 

1.  No  author  earlier  than  Josiah  shows  any  acquaintance  with 
Deuteronomy  :  after  that  date,  proofs  of  such  knowledge  abound. 

2.  The  Book  of  Deuteronomy  insisted  with  reiterated  emphasis 
on  the  centralisation  of  worship.  All  its  ordinances  are  framed 
with  a  view  to  promote  this  end.     But  we  have  seen  that  there 


400  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

is  not  a  trace  of  any  belief  that  local  shrines  were  prohibited 
earlier  than  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  who  certainly  would  have 
defended  his  boldness  by  appeal  to  a  written  law  if  he  had 
known  of  such  as  existing. 

III.  As  regards  internal  evidence,  we  see  that — 

1.  Many  passages  and  injunctions  of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
differ  entirely  from  those  found  in  the  old  Book  of  the  Covenant 
which  forms  the  most  ancient  nucleus  of  Exodus  (Exod.  xx.  22- 
xxiii.  33). 

2.  Even  the  most  conservative  English  critics — even  those 
who,  with  any  pretence  to  competent  knowledge,  argue  against 
the  more  advanced  conclusions  of  the  Higher  Criticism — can- 
not help  admitting  that  at  least  three  codes,  which  in  many, 
and  in  some  fundamental,  respects  differ  widely  from  each 
other,  and  which  make  no  reference  to  each  other,  are  found 
in  our  present  Pentateuch — viz.,  that  of  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant,  that  of  the  Deuteronomist  (D.),  and  that  of  the 
Priestly  writer  (P.).  All  three  may  contain  elements  as  old  as  the 
days  of  Moses ;  but  most  critics  (with  scarcely  an  exception  in 
Germany)  now  believe  that  the  Deuteronomic  Code,  in  its 
present  form,  is  not  earlier  than  the  date  of  Josiah's  reformation 
{circ.  B.C.  621) ;  and  the  Priestly  Codex  (whatever  older  documents 
may  exist  in  it)  not  older,  in  its  present  form,  than  about  the 
time  of  Ezra  (b.c.  444).  Dillmann,  Kittel,  and  in  his  later  days 
Delitzsch,  have  been  of  necessity  compelled  to  give  up  the  views 
that,  in  their  present  form,  D.  and  P.  are  as  ancient  as  the  days 
of  Moses.  The  last  German  critic  who  held  that  Moses  wrote 
our  present  Pentateuch  was  Keil  {d.  1888).  Canon  Cheyne  argues 
for  the  late  date  of  this  misnamed  "  Deuteronomy,"  on  the  grounds 
that  the  authors  (i)  used  documents  manifestly  later  than  Moses  ; 

(2)  alluded  to  events  which  only  occvirred  long  after  Moses  ;  and 

(3)  expressed  ideas  which,  in  the  age  of  Moses,  are  not  psycho- 
logically possible. 

The  Book  of  Deuteronomy  consists  mainly  of  an  historical  intro- 
duction, probably  added  later  (i.  1-5)  ;  Moses'yirj/ discourse  (i.  6 — 
iv.  40);  Moses'  second  discourse  (iv.  44-xxvi.);  a  section  marked 
specially  by  blessings  and  curses  (xxvii.-xxix.)  ;  a  third  discourse 
of  Moses  (xxix.  2-xxx.  20) ;  his  farewell  (xxxi.  1-13) ;  his  song 
(xxxi.  14-xxxii.  47);  conclusion,  narrating  his  blessing  and  death 
(xxxii.  48-xxxiv.  12). 

I  have  no  space  here  to  enter  fully  into  the  arguments  which 


NOTE   TO   CHAPTER  XXXI  401 

seem  decisive  as  to  the  date  of  the  main  part  of  Deuteronomy. 
Those  who  desire  to  see  them  must  study  Colenso,  The  Petitateuch^ 
pt.  iii. ;  Reuss,  Hist.  Sainte  et  la  Loi,  i.  15/1.-211  ;  W.  Robertson 
Smith,  Old  Test,  m  the  Jewish  Church,  lect.  xvi. ;  Kuenen,  TJic 
Hexaieuch,  E.  T.,  1886;  Kittel,  Gcsch.  d.  Hebrcier,  pp.  43-59; 
Cheyne,  Jefemiah,  pp.  48-86;  S.  R.  Driver,  s.v.  "Deuteronomy" 
(Smith's  Did.  of  the  Bible,  new  ed.) ;  W.  Aldis  Wright,  The 
Documents  of  the  Hexateuch,  pp.  Ivij.-lxxix.  The  name  "  Deuter- 
onomy "  (or  "second  law  ")  arises  from  the  mistaken  rendering  of 
the  LXX.  and  Vulgate  in  Deut.  xvii.  18. 


26 


CHAPTER   XXXII 

THE  DEATH  OF  JOSIAH 

B.C.    608 

2  Kings  xxiii.  29,  30 
"  Howl,  O  fir  tree  ;  for  the  cedar  is  fallen." — Zech.  xi.  2. 

IOSIAH  survived  by  thirteen  years  the  reformation 
and  covenant  which  are  the  chief  events  of  his 
~  reign.  He  Hved  in  prosperity  and  peace.  He  did 
justice  and  judgment ;  the  poor  and  needy  flourished 
under  his  royal  protection ;  and  it  was  well  with  him. 
It  seemed  as  if  the  Deuteronomic  blessings  on  faithful- 
ness to  its  law  were  about  to  be  abundantly  fulfilled, 
when  "  the  azure  calm  of  heaven "  was  suddenly 
shattered,  and  **  down  came  the  thunderbolt."  The 
great  and  victorious  Assurbanipal  of  Assyria  had  died, 
and  left  his  power  to  weaker  successors.  Meanwhile, 
Egypt  was  growing  in  power  and  splendour  under 
Pharaoh  Necho  II.  (b.c.  612-596),  the  sixth  king  of  the 
twenty-fifth  or  Saitic  dynasty.  He  nearly  anticipated 
M.  de  Lesseps  in  making  the  Suez  Canal,^  and  perhaps 
actually  anticipated  Vasco  de  Gama  in  rounding  the 
Cabo  Tormentoso,  or  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  in  a  three 
years'  voyage.     He  was  fired  by  the  ambitious  dream 

'  He   was    forced    to    desist    by   a   fearful    mortality   among   the 
labourers. 

402 


xxiii.  29, 30.]  THE  DEATH  OF  JOSIAH  .403 


of  succeeding  the  Assyrians  as  the  chief  power  in  the 
world,  or  at  any  rate  of  seizing  part  of  the  dominions 
which  they  had  conquered.^  Accordingly,  in  B.C.  608, 
he  went  up  against  the  King  of  Assyria  to  the  river 
Euphrates.  The  Chronicler  says  that  his  destination 
was  Carchemish,  on  the  Euphrates,  and  some  have  con- 
jectured that  the  vague  phrase  "  against  the  King  of 
Assyria  "  is  incorrect,  and  that,  as  Josephus  states,  he 
was  really  marching  against  the  Medes  and  Babylonians 
after  the  fall  of  Nineveh.- 

With  this  expedition  Josiah  was  not  greatly  con- 
cerned. He  may  have  begun  his  reign  as  the  vassal 
of  Assurbanipal ;  but  if  so,  it  is  probable  that  he  had 
long  since  ceased  to  pay  tribute  to  a  power  which  was 
tottering  to  its  fall  under  the  attacks  of  Scythians 
and  Babylonians.  He  had  availed  himself  of  the  dis- 
organisation of  the  Assyrian  power  to  re-establish 
some,  at  least,  of  the  old  authority  of  the  House  of 
David  over  the  Northern  Kingdom,  and  perhaps  he 
only  undertook  the  desperate  expedient  of  withstanding 
the  northward  march  of  the  Egyptian  host  under  the 
notion  that  either  on  the  march  or  on  his  return  the 
Pharaoh  intended  fo  subjugate  Palestine  to  Egypt. 

Pharaoh  Necho  II.,  among  his  other  achievements, 
had  created  a  powerful  fleet,^  and  it  is  nearly  certain 
that  he  did  not  advance  along  the  coast  of  Palestine, 
but  made  his  way  by  sea  to  Acco  or  Dor.^  Here  he 
received  the  news  that  Josiah  meant  to  block  his  path 

'  C«>c.  B.C.  611-605.  Herod.,  ii.  158,  159,  iv.  42.  Psamatik,  the 
father  of  Necho,  was  perhaps  a  Lybjan.  He  established  his  sway 
over  all  Egypt  displacing  the  Assyrians. 

«  Antt.,  X.  V.  I. 
Herod.,  ii.  158.     His  father  Psamatik  had  left  him  an  adequate 
army  of  natives  and  mercenaries. 

*  Herodotus  says  of  his  ships :  A:  nkv  iirl  ry  poprjly  OaXdaaji  iiroiTjdTjaai'. 


404  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


at  Megiddo,  on  the  plain  of  Jezreel,  That  plain  has 
been  the  great  and  only  possible  battle-field  of  Palestine, 
from  the  revolt  in  which  Barak  destroyed  the  host  of 
Jabin/  to  that  in  which  Tryphon  met  Jonathan  the 
Maccabee,^  and  Kleber  in  1799  defeated  twenty-five 
thousand  Turks  with  three  thousand  French. 

The  Chronicler  here  adds  a  very  remarkable  inci- 
dent.^ Necho,  like  Joash  of  Israel  in  former  days,  did 
not  care  to  fight  with  the  poor  little  King  of  Judah — or 
at  any  rate  did  not  wish  to  do  so  at  present,  when  he 
was  on  his  way  to  the  greater  encounter.  He  therefore 
sent  an  embassy  to  Josiah,  saying,  "  What  have  I  to 
do  with  thee,  King  of  Judah  ?  I  come  not  against 
thee  this  day,  but  against  the  house  wherewith  I  have 
war.*  For  God  [Elohim]  commanded  me  [in  a  dream] 
to  make  haste.^  Forbear,  then,  from  meddling  with  God, 
who  is  with  me,  that  He  destroy  thee  not." 

The  conjecture  "  in  a  dream  "  is  not  unlikely,  nor  is 
it  in  disaccord  with  other  events  in  the  annals  of  the 
Pharaohs  and  the  Sargonidse  of  Assyria.*^  We  may 
indeed  be  surprised  that  an  Egyptian  Pharaoh  should 
profess  to  deliver  to  a  Jewish  king  the  messages  of 
Elohim,  though  we  have  seen  something  like  this  in  the 
case  of  the  Rabshakeh.'^  The  variation  in  i  Esdras  i. 
26-28  is  curious  and  interesting.     We  are  there  told 

'  Judg.  iv.  23;  I  Sam.  xxix.  i-ii  ;  i  Kings  xx.  26;  2  Kings  xxiii. 
29 ;  2  Chron.  xxxv.  22 ;  Rev.  xvi.  16  (Armageddon).  Herodotus 
confuses  it  with  Migdol  {MdyhoKov), 

•  I  Mace.  xii.  49 ;  Jos.,  Antt.,  XIII.  vi.  2. 
^  2  Chron.  xxxv.  20-22. 

*  According  to  I  Esdras  i.  25-32,  "  for  upon  Euphrates  is  my  war." 
'  Klostermann,  in  2  Chron.  xxxv.  21,  reads  bachaldm,  "  in  a  dream," 

instead  of  "  to  make  haste." 

"  Gen.  xli.  I ;  Herod.,  ii.  lS8 ;  Rtcords  of  the  Past,  ix.  52. 
'  2  Kings  xviii.  25. 


xxiii.  29, 30]  THE  DEATH  OF  JOSIAH  405 

that  the  message  was  sent  to  Josiah,  not  only  by  Pharaoh 
Necho,  who  had  sent  to  say  "The  Lord  is  with  me 
hastening  me  forward  :  depart  from  me,  and  be  not 
against  the  Lord,"  but  also  by  "  the  prophet  Jeremy." 
Josephus  frankly  ascribes  the  error  of  Josiah  to  destiny, 
as  though  he  had  been  infatuated  by  the  dementation 
which  the  Greeks  attributed  to  Ate.^ 

This,  however,  is  not  likely;  for  it  is  clear  that 
Jeremiah,  though  not  mentioned  in  the  Book  of  Kings, 
must  have  had  a  strong  influence  over  the  mind  of 
Josiah,  whom  he  loved,  whose  views  he  shared,  in 
whose  religious  revolution  he  had  taken  part.  Further, 
we  do  not  read  of  any  warning  recorded  by  the  prophet 
himself;  and  had  he  uttered  one,  it  would  certainly  have 
been  mentioned,  when  he  committed  his  prophecies  to 
writing  twenty-three  years  after  their  commencement. 
A  warning  of  which  the  neglect  had  led  to  fatal  issues 
would  have  been  so  decisive  a  confirmation  of  Jeremiah's 
prophetic  insight  that  it  could  not  have  been  passed 
over  in  silence. 

Indeed,  Jeremiah  may  have  shared  the  conviction 
which,  founded  on  imperfect  generalisation,  perhaps 
dazzled  the  unfortunate  king  to  his  ruin.  Josiah  had 
accepted  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  with  the  whole 
strength  of  his  belief,  and  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
had  proclaimed  to  Israel  as  the  reward  of  faithfulness 
this  promise:  "And  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  Jehovah, 
thy  God,  shall  set  thee  on  high  above  all  the  nations 
01  the  earth.  .  .  .  Jehovah  shall  cause  thine  enemies 
which  rise  up  against  thee  to  be  smitten  before  thy 
face :  they  shall  come  out  against  thee  one  way,  and 
flee  before  thee  seven  ways."  ^     In  the  strength  of  that 

'  Antt,  X.  V.  I :  T^s  ire7rpw/x6'7jj  of/*oi  et's  tovt  airbv  irapopnija-dffTii. 
*  Deut.  xxviii.  1-8. 


4o6  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

promise,  Josiah  was  perhaps  saying  to  himself,  in  the 
language  of  the  Psalms,  that  Jehovah  could  not  fail  to 
save  His  anointed,  and  dash  His  enemies  to  pieces 
under  His  feet ;  ^  in  the  language,  perhaps,  of  later  days, 
that  the  sound  of  a  shaken  leaf  should  chase  them,  and 
they  should  flee  when  none  pursued.^ 

Alas  1  such  passages  do  not  apply  invariably  to  our 
wordly  fortunes  1  God's  promises  are  general.  The 
individual  must  be  considered  apart  from  the  universal 
in  the  region  of  spiritual  and  eternal  blessings.  In  the 
affairs  of  earth  the  wicked  often  seem  to  be  in  prosperity, 
while  the  righteous  are  overwhelmed  by  all  God's  waves 
and  storms.  Further,  Josiah  evidently  received  a 
warning — a  warning  which  professed  to  come,  and 
really  came,  from  God^ — whether  uttered  by  Pharaoh 
or  by  Jeremiah.  And  in  this  instance  Josiah  had 
sought  war  ;  he  had  not  been  forced  into  it.  It  was 
not  for  him  to  go  out  of  his  way  to  champion  the  cause 
either  of  cruel  Assyria  or  vaunting  Babylon. 

The  result  was  entire  disenchantment.  No  more  dis- 
heartening and  disastrous  calamity  could  have  happened 
to  the  kingdom,  which  had  just  begun  to  struggle  out 
of  the  slough  of  idolatry  and  humiliation. 

Pleedless  of  the  message  he  had  received,  strong  in 
mistaken  hopes,  Josiah  opposed  his  poor,  weak  forces 
to  the  powerful  host  of  renovated  Egypt.  The  result 
was  instantaneous  ruin.^  Judah  was  defeated  and 
scattered  without  a  blow, — Necho  came,  saw,  conquered. 
Josiah,  according  to  the  present  record  of  the  Chronicles, 

'   Psalm  XX.  6,  xviii.  29-50. 

*  Lev,  xxvi.  36. 

*  2  Chron.  xxxv.  22  :  "hearkened  not  to  the  ivords  of  Necho  from  the 
mouth  of  God." 

*  "  When  he  had  seen  him."    Comp.  2  Kings  xiv.  8. 


xxiii.  29, 30-]  T^^  DEATH   OF  JOSIAH  407 


like  Ahab,  "disguised  himself"^  and  went  into  tlie 
battle ;  and  as  he  drove  from  rank  to  rank  an  Egyptian 
archer  drew  a  bow  at  a  venture,  and  smote  him  while 
he  was  putting  his  forces  in  array.-  The  arrow-point 
brought  conviction  too  late.  Josiah  saw  his  error ;  he 
knew  that  his  own  death  involved  the  rout  of  his  army. 
He  sounded  a  retreat,  and  said  to  his  servants,  "  Bear 
me  away  to  my  travelling  chariot,  for  I  am  sore 
wounded."  ^  He  died  at  Megiddo,  where  his  ancestor 
Ahaziah  had  died  before  him  from  the  arrow-wounds 
of  Jehu's  pursuers.  His  servants  carried  him  in  a 
chariot  dead  from  Megiddo.  The  famous  plain  of 
Esdraelon  had  already  witnessed  two  great  victories — 
that  of  Barak  over  Sisera,  and  that  of  Gideon  over  the 
Midianites  ;  and  one  deplorable  defeat^ — -that  of  Saul  by 
the  Philistines.  It  was  now  darkened  by  a  catastrophe 
even  more  sad.^ 

When  that  chariot,  accompanied  by  its  wailing  escort, 
entered  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  with  the  routed  army 
of  Judah  behind  it,  the  feeling  of  the  people  must  have 
resembled  that  of  the  Athenians  when  the  news  reached 
them  that  Lysander  had  destroyed  their  whole  fleet 
at  iEgospotami,  and  the  long  wail  went  thrilling  up 
through  that  sleepless  night  from  the  Peiraeus  all  along 
the  Marka  Teiche  to  the  Parthenon  and  the  Acropolis. 
And  there  followed  such  a  mourning  as  the  land  had 
never  known  before.  It  had  begun  at  Megiddo  and 
Hadadrimmon,  leaving  the  sad  memory  of  its  hopeless 

'  I  Esdras  i.  25  ;  and  LXX.,  "  firmly  resolved,"  "  strengthened  him- 
self," as  in  2  Chron.  xxv.  II, 

*  Jos.,  Antt.,  X.  V.  I  ;  and  2  Chron.  xxxv.  23 ;  i  Esdras  i.  30. 

'  The  fortunes  of  the  Jews  again  prevailed  in  this  plain  in  the  days 
of  Holofernes  (Judith  vii.  3);  but  they  were,  defeated  there  by 
Placidus  (Jos.,  B.J.,  IV.  i.  8). 


4o8  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


intensity.  It  was  renewed  at  Jerusalem  when  they  buried 
the  king  in  his  own  sepulchre.  "The  land  mourned, 
every  family  apart ;  the  family  of  the  House  of  David 
apart,  and  their  wives  apart;  the  family  of  the  House  of 
Nathan  apart,  and  their  wives  'apart ;  the  family  of  the 
House  of  Levi  apart,  and  their  wives  apart ;  the  family 
of  Shimei  apart,  and  their  wives  apart ;  all  the  families 
that  remained,  every  family  apart,  and  their  wives 
apart."  ^  "And  all  Judah  and  Jerusalem  mourned  for 
Josiah.  And  Jeremiah  lamented  for  Josiah :  and  all 
the  singing  men  and  the  singing  women  spake  of  Josiah 
in  their  lamentations  unto  this  day,  and  they  were  made 
an  institution  in  Israel :  and,  behold,  they  are  written 
in  the  Lamentations."^  Not  even  for  heroic  David, 
or  royal  Solomon,  or  pious  Asa,  or  prosperous  Jehosha- 
phat  had  there  been  so  loud  a  dirge. 

But,  alas  I  there  was  cause  for  far  deeper  sorrow  than 
the  loss  of  a  prince,  however  able,  however  beloved.  The 
dead  was  dead.  Natural  sorrow  for  the  bereai^ement  of 
the  people  would  soon  be  healed  by  time,  but  behind  the 
passing  affliction  lay  a  great  fear  and  a  great  reaction. 

A  great  fear, — for  now  a  southern  foe  was  added  to 
the  northern.  Jeremiah  and  other  prophets  had  warned 
Israel  of  the  peril  from  the  North.  When  the  Scythian 
wave  "rolled  shoreward,  struck  and  was  dissipated," 

'  Zech.  xii.  II-13  (comp.  Jer.  xxii.  lO,  18).  No  such  place  as 
Hadadrimmon  is  known,  though  there  is  a  Rummane  not  far  from 
Megiddo.  Jerome  (CoMim.  in  Zach.)  identifies  it  with  a  place  which 
he  calls  Maximianopolis.  Wellhausen  {Sktssen,  192)  thinks  that  the 
mourning  is  compared  to  some  wail  over  the  god  Hadadrimmon, 
like  the  wailing  for  Tammuz.  Jonathan  and  Jarchi  say  that  Hadad- 
rimmon was  the  son  of  Tabrimmon,  who  opposed  Ahab  at  Ramoth- 
Gilead. 

■''  2  Chron.  xxxv.  24,  25.  Jeremiah's  elegy  has  probably  perished. 
It  would  have  been  most  interesting  had  it  been  preserved.  Lam.  iv. 
is  too  vague  to  have  been  this  lost  poem. 


xxiii.  29, 30-]  THE  DEATH  OF  JOSIAH  409 


when  the  source  of  Assyrian  terror  seemed  to  be  drying 
up,  worldlings  may  have  felt  inclined  to  laugh  at 
Jeremiah.  But  now  it  was  evident  that,  sooner  or 
later,  the  Chaldaeans  would  be  as  formidable  as  their 
predecessors,  and  out  of  the  serpent's  egg  was  breaking 
forth  a  cockatrice.  The  uncalled-for  attempt  of  Josiah 
to  bar  the  path  of  the  new  and  mighty  Pharaoh  had 
also  added  Egypt  to  the  list  of  formidable  enemies. 
For  the  present  the  Pharaoh  had  passed  on  to  the 
Euphrates ;  but  whether  he  returned  victorious  or 
defeated,  his  troops  could  not  but  be  a  source  of  danger 
to  the  little  kingdom,  which  would  henceforth  be  help- 
less between  the  overwhelming  forces  of  its  foes. 

If  such  were  the  fears  of  the  timid  and  the  pessimistic, 
still  deeper  was  the  dishearten ment  of  the  faithful. 
Josiah  had  been  the  most  obedient,  the  most  religious, 
of  all  the  kings  of  Judah  from  childhood  upwards. 
Where,  then,  were  Jehovah's  old  loving-kindnesses 
which  He  sware  unto  David  in  His  truth  ?  Had  God 
forgotten  to  be  gracious  ?  Had  He  hidden  away  His 
mercy  in  displeasure  ?  Where  were  the  blessings  of 
the  newly  discovered  Book  of  the  Law,  if  the  curse 
fell  on  its  most  earnest  votary  ?  Where  was  Huldah's 
promise  that  he  should  be  gathered  to  his  fathers 
in  peace,  if  he  was  carried  back  dead  from  the  field 
of  fruitless  battle  ?  There  can  be  little  doubt  that 
the  apparent  blight  which  had  fallen  on  unavailing 
righteousness  hastened  the  reaction  of  the  subsequent 
reigns.  Many  might  be  inclined  to  cry  out  with  even 
Jeremiah  in  his  moments  of  overwhelming  despondency, 
"  Ah,  Lord  God  1  surely  Thou  hast  greatly  deceived  this 
people  and  Jerusalem,  saying,  *  Ye  shall  have  peace ' ; 
whereas  the  sword  reacheth  unto  the  soul."  ^    "  O  Lord, 

'  Jer,  iv.  10. 


4IO  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Thou  has  deceived  me,  and  I  was  deceived  :  Thou  art 
stronger  than  I,  and  hast  prevailed  :  I  am  a  derision 
daily,  every  one  mocketh  me.  Whenever  I  speak,  I 
must  shout,  I  must  cry  violence  and  spoil ;  for  the  word 
of  the  Lord  is  made  a  reproach  unto  me,  and  a  derision, 
daily."  1 

But  man  judges  partially  and  judges  amiss.  God's 
ways  are  not  as  man's  ways.  God  sees  the  whole  ; 
He  sees  the  future ;  He  sees  things  as  they  are. 
Through  defeat,  through  captivity,  through  multiform 
affliction,  lay  the  path  to  the  final  deliverance  of  the 
nation  from  the  grosser  forms  of  idolatry^  When  they 
wept  as  they  remembered  Zion,  when  they  took  down 
their  harps  from  the  willows  by  the  v/ater-courses  of 
Babylon  to  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land, 
they  turned  again — and  at  last  with  their  whole  heart — 
to  God  their  Saviour,  who  had  done  so  great  things 
for  them  ; — until  the  grey  secret  lingering  in  the  East 
was  brightened  by  the  Morning  Star,  and  there  was 
revealed  tc  the  world  a  True  Israel,  and  a  New  Jeru- 
salem, wherein  the  Lord  should  be  King  for  evermore. 

'  Jer,  XX.  7,  8. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

JEHOAHAZ 

B.C.  608 

2  Kings  xxiii.  31 — 33 

"  I  went  by,  and,  lo !  he  was  gone :  I  sought  him,  but  his  place 
could  nowhere  be  found." — Psalm  xxxvii.  36. 

IT  was  under  the  disastrous  circumstances  which 
attended  his  father's  death  at  Megiddo  that  Jehoahaz 
began  to  reign.  There  is  some  confusion  about  the 
four  sons  of  Josiah,  whom  the  Chronicler  calls  Johanan, 
Jehoiakim,  Zedekiah,  and  Shallum.^  From  Jer.  xxii.  1 1, 
it  appears  that  Jehoahaz  was  the  royal  name  taken  on 
his  anointing  by  Shallum,  the  third  son.^  If  so,  he 
cannot  be  identified  with  Johanan,  the  firstborn,  as  in 
the  margin  of  our  version.  Further,  it  appears  from 
our  historians  that  Jehoahaz  was  twenty-three  at  his 
succession,  and  was  therefore  younger  than  Jehoiakim 
who  (three  months  later)  succeeded  him  at  the  age  of 

'  Chron.  iii.  15. 

-  He  is  named  "  fourth,"  but  he  was  older  than  his  brothers 
Jehoiakim  and  Zedekiah  (2  Kings  xxiii.  31,  xxiv.  18).  The  genealogy 
is  as  follows  : — 

Zebudah  =j=  Josiah  =p  Hamutal. 

I '  h -1 

Nehushta  =p  Eliakim  Zedekiah  Jehoahaz 

I  or  Jehoiakim.         or  Mattaniah.     or  Shallum. 
Jehoiachin. 

411 


4T2  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

twenty-five.  Jehoahaz  was  the  own  brother  of  Zede- 
kiah,  Jehoiakim  being  his  half-brother  by  another 
mother  (Zebudah). 

We  do  not  know  for  what  reason  he  was  preferred 
by  "  the  people  of  the  land "  to  his  elder  brother 
Eliakim  or  Jehoiakim.  It  was  probably  because  they 
regarded  him  as  a  prince  of  eminent  courage  and 
ability.  The  high  hopes  which  the  nation  conceived  of 
him  may  be  seen  in  the  pathetic  elegy  of  Ezek.  xix.  : — 

"Moreover  take  thou  up  a  lamentation  for  the  princes  of  Israel,  and 
say,— 
What  was  thy  mother  ?     A  lioness  ! 
Amidst  lions  she  couched, 

In  the  midst  of  the  young  lions  she  nourished  her  whelps. 
She  brought  up  one  of  her  whelps:  he  became  a  j^oung  lion  ; 
He  learned  to  catch  the  prey ;   he  devoured  men. 
The  nations  heard  of  him  ; 
In  their  pit  was  he  taken,' 
And  they  brought  him  with  hooks  into  the  land  of  Egypt.'"' 

We  see,  too,  that  he  was  to  an  eminent  degree  the 
darling  of  the  nation  in  the  still  more  plaintive  wail  of 
Jeremiah  which  will  be  quoted  later. 

The  fact  that  Shallum  solemnly  changed  his  name 
to  Jehoahaz  ("Jehovah  taketh  hold"),  ^  and  that  the 
people  of  the  land  not  only  "  made  him  king  in  his 
father's  stead,"  but  also  "anointed  him,"  points  to  a 
disputed  succession.*     High   hopes  were  conceived   of 

'  An  allusion  to  the  Syrian  mode  of  hunting  the  lion  by  driving 
it  with  cries  into  a  concealed  pit  (Tristram,  Nat.  Hist,  of  the  Bible, 
Ii8;  Cheyne,  140). 

^  Ezek.  xix.  1-4. 

'  The  name  Shallum  means  "  recompense."  It  may  have  been 
regarded  as  ill-omened,  since  the  King  of  Israel  who  bore  this  rare 
name  had  only  reigned  a  month. 

^  The  Talmud  says  that  kings  were  only  anointed  in  special 
cases  (Keritoth,  f.  5,  2 ;  Gratz,  ii.  328). 


xxiii.  31-33.]  JEHOAHAZ  413 

him ;  but  he  hardly  had  a  chance  of  fulfilling  them,  for 
he  was  only  permitted  to  reign  three  months.  What 
were  the  events  of  those  months  we  do  not  know. 
Jehoahaz  must  have  disappointed  any  hopes  which 
may  have  been  formed  of  him  by  the  religious  party ; 
for  dear  as  he  was  to  them,  the  historians  record  of 
him  that  "he  did  that  which* was  evil  in  the  sight  of 
the  Lord,  according  to  all  that  his  fathers  had  done," 
although  they  specify  no  particular  offence.  The  same 
sad  verdict  is  passed  on  all  his  four  successors ;  but 
Josephus  says  even  more  emphatically  of  Jehoahaz 
that  he  was  impious  and  impure.^ 

He  must  have  shown  some  activity  in  other  respects, 
or  else  Ezekiel  would  hardly  have  said  that  "  the 
nations  heard  of  him,"  and  that  "  he  learned  to  catch 
the  prey ;  he  devoured  men."  Over  all  his  deeds, 
whatever  they  may  have  been,  "  the  iniquity  of  oblivion 
has  blindly  scattered  her  poppy,"  and  he  fell  a  victim 
to  the  great  world-movements  of  those  troublous 
times. 

For  Pharaoh,  after  his  defeat  of  Josiah  at  Megiddo, 
proceeded  to  make  himself  master  of  Syria  and  Palestine. 
He  took  Cadytis,  which  Herodotus  calls  "a  large  city 
of  Syria,"  ^  and  which — since  it  cannot  here  mean  Gaza, 
as  in  Herod.,  iii.  5 — has  been  identified  by  some  with 
Kadesh.  Thence  he  marched  to  Carchemish,  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Euphrates,^  none  venturing  to  check 
him,  till  "  once  more,  after  the  lapse  of  nine  centuries, 
Egyptian  garrisons  looked  down  on  that  historic 
stream."*     On  his  return  he  stopped  at  Riblah,  on  the 

'  Jos.,  Antt.,  X.  V.  2 :  'Ao-ejSrjs  /cat  /uapbs  rbv  rp6irov. 
''■  Herod.,  ii.  159, 

"  Mr.  G.  Smith  identifies  Carchemish  with  Jerablus. 
*  Cheyne,  Jeremiah,  p.  127. 


414  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Orontes/  to  consolidate  his  Syrian  conquests  ;  and  there 
he  learnt  that,  without  consulting  him,  the  people  of 
Jerusalem  had  made  Jehoahaz  their  king.  Perhaps 
he  heard  enough  of  the  warlike  prowess  of  Jehoahaz 
to  make  him  resent  this  act  of  independence.  After 
his  three  months'  campaign  he  sent  for  Jehoahaz  to 
Riblah,  and  the  unhappy  prince  had  no  choice  but 
to  obey.  Possibly  the  Egyptian  party  in  Jerusalem, 
headed  by  his  disappointed  elder  brother  Eliakim,  may 
have  intrigued  against  him  with  Pharaoh  Necho.  When 
he  reached  Riblah,  he  was  unceremoniously  deposed ; 
and  though  we  may  hope  that  the  expression  of  Ezekiel, 
that  "they  brought  him  with  hooks  into  the  land  of 
Egypt,"  belongs  to  the  metaphor  of  the  captured  lion's 
whelp,  it  is  certain  that  he  was  taken  to  the  banks 
of  the  Nile  as  a  fettered  captive,  never  to  return.  How 
long  his  miserable  life  was  protracted,  or  how  he 
was  treated  in  Egypt,  vv^e  do  not  know.  The  sun  of 
the  young  prince  went  down  in  darkness  while  it  was 
yet  day.  No  king  of  Judah  before  him  had  died  in 
prison  and  in  exile,  and  the  calamity  smote  heavily 
the  heart  of  his  people.  Egypt  was  not  to  escape — 
shortly  thereafter — the  doom  of  violence  and  pride ; 
but  whether  the  young  Jewish  king  had  died  mean- 
while of  a  broken  heart,  or  whether  he  dragged  on 
to  hoar  hairs  his  maimed  life,  or  whether  he  was 
murdered  in  his  dungeon,  no  man  knew.  One  thing 
only  was  clear  to  the  sad  prophet — that  he  would 
never  return. 

"Weep  ye  not  for  the  dead,  neither  bemoan  him: 

'  Comp.  2  Kings  xxv.  20,  21.  The  old  Hittite  capital  of  Riblah 
was  a  convenient  halting-place  on  the  road  between  Babylon  and 
Jerusalem.  It  was  on  the  northernmost  boundary  of  Palestine 
towards  Damascus  (Amos  vi.   14). 


xxiii.3i-33-]  JEHOAHAZ  415 

but  weep  ye  sore  for  him  that  is  gone  away :  for  he 
shall  return  no  more,  nor  see  his  native  country.  For 
thus  saith  Jehovah  concerning  Shallum,  the  son  of 
Josiah,  King  of  Judah,  which  reigned  instead  of  Josiah 
his  father,  which  went  forth  out  of  this  place  :  *  He 
shall  not  return  thither  any  more  :  but  in  the  place 
whither  they  have  led  him  captive  there  shall  he  die, 
and  he  shall  see  this  land  no  more.' "  ^ 

To  show  his  absolute  power  over  Judah  and  Jeru- 
salem, Pharaoh  Necho  not  only  deposed  and  fettered 
their  king,  but  put  the  whole  land  under  a  yearly  tribute 
of  one  hundred  talents  of  silver  (about  ;^40,ooo)  and 
a  talent  of  gold  (about  ;^4,ooo).^ 

Even  this  comparatively  small  sum  was  a  heavy 
burden  for  so  greatly  afflicted  and  impoverished  a 
country,  and  Pharaoh  further  imposed  on  them  a  vassal 
to  see  that  it  was  duly  extorted.  This  was  Eliakim, 
the  eldest  living  son  of  Josiah.  There  was  nothing 
left  to  plunder  in  the  Temple  or  the  palace,  and  there- 
fore the  exaction  had  to  be  borne  by  the  taxed  and 
suffering  people. 

'  Jer.  xxii.  10-12. 

'^  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  3 ;  i  Esdras  i.  36.  The  smallness  of  the  tribute 
proves  the  impoverishment  of  the  land.  Sennacherib  demanded  from 
Hezekiah  three  hundred  talents  of  silver,  and  thirty  of  gold ;  and 
Menahem  paid  one  thousand  talents  of  silver  to  Tiglath-Pileser. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

JEHOIAKIM 
B.C.  608—597 

2  Kings  xxiii.  36 — xxiv.  7 

"  But  those  things  that  are  recorded  of  him,  and  of  his  unclean- 
ness  and  impiety,  are  written  in  the  Chronicles  of  the  Kings." — 
I  EsDRAS  i.  42. 

"When  Jehoiakim  succeeded  to  the  throne,  he  said,  'My  pre- 
decessors knew  not  how  to  provoke  God.' " — Sanhedrin,  f.  103,  2. 

"There  is  no  strange  handwriting  on  the  wall, 
Through  all  the  midnight  hum  no  threatening  call, 
Nor  on  the  marble  floor  the  stealthy  fall 
Of  fatal  footsteps.     All  is  safe. — Thou  fool. 
The  avenging  deities  are  shod  with  wool !  " 

W.  Allen  Butler. 

ELIAKIM  succeeded  to  the  throne  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five  under  very  unenviable  circumstances — 
as  a  nominal  king,  a  helpless  nominee  and  tributary 
of  the  Pharaoh,  He  seems  to  have  been  thoroughly 
distasteful  to  the  people  ;  and  if  we  may  judge  from  the 
fact  that  Ezekiel  frankly  ignores  him  and  passes  from 
Jehoahaz  to  Jehoachin,  he  was  regarded  as  a  tax- 
gathering  usurper  nominated  by  an  alien  tyrant.  For 
after  speaking  of  Jehoahaz,  Ezekiel  says, — 

"Now   when    she    [Judah]    saw    that    she    had    waited    [for   the 
restoration  of  Jehoahaz],  and  her  hope  was  lost, 
416 


xxiii.  36-xxiv.  7.]  JEHOIAKIM  417 

Then  she  took  another  of  her  whelps ; ' 
A   young  lion  she  made  him. 
He  went  up  and  down  among  the  lions; 
He  became  a  young  lion."  - 

The  historian  says  that  Necho  turned  the  name  of 
Eliakim  ("  God  will  establish  ")  to  Jehoiakim  ("Jehovah 
will  establish  ") ;  but  by  this  can  hardly  be  meant  more 
than  that  he  sanctioned  the  change  of  El  into  Jehovah 
on  Eliakim's  installation  upon  the  throne. 

Jehoiakim   is  condemned  in  the  same   terms   as    all 
the  other  sons  of  Josiah.     His  misdoings  are  far  more 
definitely  recorded  in  the  Prophets,  who  furnish  us  with 
details  which  are  passed  over  by  the  historians.     Some 
of  his  sins  may  have  been  due  to  the  influence  of  his  wife 
Nehushta,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Elnathan  of  Achbor, 
one  of  the  princes  of  the  heathen  party.     It  was  this 
Elnathan  whom  the  king  chose  as  a  fitting  ambassador 
to  demand  the  extradition  of  the  prophet  Urijah  from 
Egypt.     One  of  the  crimes   with  which  Jehoiakim   is 
charged   is  the   building  for  himself  of  a    sumptuous 
palace,  and  thus  vainly  trying  to  emulate  the  splendours 
of  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  and  Egyptian  kings.     In  itself 
the  act  would  not  have  been  more  wicked  than  it  was 
in  Solomon,  whose  architectural  parade  is  dwelt  upon 
with    enthusiasm.     But   the    circumstances  were    now 
wholly  different.     Solomon  was  at  that  time  in  all  his 
glory,  the  possessor  of  boundless  wealth,  the  ruler  of  an 
immense  and  united  territory,  the  head  of  a  powerful 
and  prosperous  people,  the  successor  of  an  unconquered 
hero  who  had  gone  to  his  grave  in  peace ;  Jehoiakim, 

'  Not  Jehoiakim,  but  Jehoiachin,  as  the  sequel  shows. 

-  Ezek.  xix,  5-9,  The  allusions  to  Jehoiakim  by  Jeremiah  are 
numerous,  and  all  unfavourable  (xxii.  13-19,  xxvi.  20-23,  xxxvi, 
20-31,  etc.). 

27 


4i8  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

on  the  other  hand,  had  succeeded  a  father  who  had 
died  in  defeat  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  a  brother 
who  was  hopelessly  pining  in  an  Egyptian  prison.  The 
Tribes  had  been  carried  into  captivity  by  Assyria ;  the 
nation  was  beaten,  oppressed,  and  poor ;  the  king  him- 
self possessed  but  a  shadow  of  royalty.  In  such  a 
condition  of  things  it  would  have  been  his  glory  to 
maintain  a  watchful  and  strenuous  activity,  and  to  de- 
vote himself  in  simplicity  and  self-denial  to  the  good 
of  his  people.  It  showed  a  perverted  and  sensuous 
mind  to  insult  the  misery  of  his  subjects  at  such  a 
time  by  feeble  attempts  to  rival  heathen  potentates  in 
costly  aestheticism.  But  this  was  not  all ;  he  carried 
out  his  ignoble  selfishness  at  the  cost  of  oppression 
and  wrong. ^ 

It  is  possible  that  the  prophet  Habakkuk  alludes 
to  him  in  the  words  : — 

"  Woe  to  him  that  getteth  an  evil  gain  for  his  house, 
that  he  may  set  his  nest  on  high,  that  he  may  be 
delivered  from  the  hand  of  evil !  ^  Thou  hast  consulted 
shame  to  thy  house  by  cutting  off  many  peoples,  and 
hast  sinned  against  thy  soul.  For  the  stone  shall  cry 
out  of  the  wall,  and  the  beam  out  of  the  timber  shall 
answer  it."  ^ 

The  thought  of  the  Jewish  king's  selfish  expensive- 
ness  may  have  crossed  the  mind  of  Habakkuk,  though 
the  taunt  is  addressed  directly  to  the  Chaldseans,  and 
especially  to  Nebuchadrezzar,  who  was  at  that  time 
revelling  in  the  beautifying  of  Babylon,  and  especially 

"  Josephus  (AntL,  X.  v.  2)  is  very  severe  on  this  king.  He  sa3's 
that  "he  was  unjust  in  disposition,  an  evil-doer,  neither  pious  towards 
God  nor  just  towards  men." 

-  Perhaps  an  allusion  to  a  sort  of  fortified  palace  on  Ophel. 

*  Hab,  ii.  9-1 1. 


xxiii.  36-xxiv.  7.]  JEHOIAKIM  419 

of  his  own  royal  palace.  On  the  other  hand,  the  rebuke, 
or  rather  the  denunciation,  uttered  by  Jeremiah  against 
the  king  for  this  line  of  conduct,  and  for  the  forced 
labour  which  it  required,  is  terribly  direct. 

"  '  Woe  unto  him  that  buildeth  his  house  by  unrighteousness, 

And  his  chambers  by  wrong  ; 

That  useth  his  neighbour's  service  without  wages, 

And  giveth  him  not  his  hire ; 

That  saith,  "  I  will  build  me  a  wide  house  and  spacious  chambers," 

And  cutteth  out  windows  ; 

And  it  is  ceiled  with  cedar,  and  painted  with  vermilion. 

Shalt  thou  reign  because  thou  viest  with  the  cedar?' 

Did  not  thy  father  eat  and  drink,  and  do  judgment  and  justice  ? 

Then  it  was  well  with  him  ! 
%Was  not  this  to  know  Me  ? '  saith  the  Lord. 

'  But  thine  heart  is  not  but  for  thy  dishonest  gain. 

And  for  to  shed  innocent  blood. 

And  for  oppression  and  for  violence  to  do  it.'"- 

Then  follows  the  stern  message  of  doom  which  we 
shall  quote  hereafter.  The  king's  bad  example  stimu- 
lated or  perhaps  emulated  similar  folly  and  want  of 
patriotism  on  the  part  of  his  nobles.  They  were 
shepherds  who  destroyed  and  scattered  the  sheep 
of  Jehovah's  pastures.  But  vain  was  their  imagined 
security,  and  their  ostentation.  The  judgment  was 
imminent.^ 

"  O  inhabitress  of  Lebanon,  that  makest  thy  nest  in 
the  cedars,"  exclaims  the  prophet  in  bitter  mockery, 
"  how  greatly  wilt  thou  groan  when  pangs  come  upon 
thee,  the  pain  as  of  a  woman  in  travail ! "  * 

'  The  text  is  perhaps  corrupt.  Two  MSS.  of  the  LXX.  read 
"because  thou  viest  with  Ahab,"  and  the  Vatican  MSS.  has  "with 
Ahaz."    Cheyne  adopts  the  former  reading. 

*  Jar.  xxii.  13-17. 
'  Jer.  xxiii.  1. 

*  Jer.  xxii.  23. 


420  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

But  Jehoiakim's  offences  were  deadlier  than  this. 
The  Chronicler  speaks  of  "  the  abominations  which  he 
did  " ;  and  some  have  therefore  supposed  that  the  evil 
state  of  things  described  by  Jeremiah  (xix.)  refers  to 
this  reign.  If  so,  he  plunged  into  the  idolatry  which 
caused  Judah  to  be  shivered  like  a  potter's  vessel. 
Certainly  he  sinned  grievously  against  God  in  the 
person  of  His  prophets. 

Jeremiah  was  not  the  only  prophet  who  disdained 
the  easy  and  traitorous  popularity  which  was  to  be  won 
by  prophesying  "  peace,   peace,"   when   there   was    no 
peace.     He  had  for  his  contemporary  another  messenger 
of  God,  no  less  boldly  explicit  than   himself — Urijah, 
the  son  of  Shemaiah  of  Kirjath-Jearim.     Jeremiah  had 
as  yet   only  prophesied   in   his  humble  native  village 
of  Anathoth ;    he    had   not    been   called   upon   to    face 
"  the  swellings  "  or  "  the  pride  of  Jordan."  ^     Urijah  had 
been  in  the  fuller  glare  of  publicity  in  the  capital,  and 
his  bold  declaration  that  Jerusalem  should  fall  before 
Nebuchadrezzar  and  the  Chaldaeans  had  excited  such 
a  fury  of  indignation  that  he  escaped  into  Egypt  for  his 
life.     Surely  this  should  have  appeased  the  rulers,  even 
if  they  chose  to  pay  no  attention  to  the  Divine  menace. 
For  the  prophets    were    recognised    deliverers    of  the 
messages  of  Jehovah  ;  and  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
even  in  the  most  wicked  reigns,  their  persons  had  been 
regarded  as  sacrosanct.     But  Jehoiakim  would  not  let 
Urijah  escape.     He  sent  an  embassy  to  Necho,  headed 
by  his  father-in-law  Elnathan,  son  of  Achbor,  requesting 
his  extradition.     Urijah  had  been  dragged  back  from 
Egypt,  and,  to  the  horror  of  the  people,  the  king  had 
slain  him  with  the  sword,  and  flung  his  body  into  the 

'  Jer.  xii.  5. 


xxiii.  36-xxiv.  7.]  JEHOIAKIM  421 


graves  of  the  common  people.^  What  made  this  con- 
duct more  monstrous  was  the  precedent  of  Micah  the 
Morasthite.  He,  in  the  days  of  Hezekiah,  had  pro- 
phesied,— 

"Zion  shall  be  ploughed  as  a  field, 
And  Jerusalem  shall  become  heaps, 
And  the  Mountain  of  the  House  as  the  wooded  heights."  - 

Yet  so  far  from  putting  him  to  death,  or  even  stirring 
a  finger  against  him,  the  pious  king  had  only  been 
moved  to  repentance  by  the  Divine  threatemngs.  Thus 
the  blood  of  the  first  martyr-prophet,  if  we  except  the 
case  of  Zechariah,  had  been  shed  by  the  son  of  Judah's 
most  pious  king.  Jeremiah  himself  only  narrowly 
escaped  martyrdom.  The  precedent  of  Micah  helped 
to  save  him,  though  it  had  not  saved  Urijah.  He  was 
far  more  powerfully  protected  by  the  patronage  of  the 
princes  and  the  people.  Standing  in  the  Temple  court, 
he  had  declared  that,  unless  the  nation  repented,  that 
house  should  be  like  Shiloh,  and  the  city  a  curse  to 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Maddened  by  such  words 
of  bold  rebuke,  the  priests  and  the  prophets  and  the 
people  had  threatened  him  with  death.  But  the  princes 
took  his  part,  and  some  of  the  people  came  over  to 
them.  His  most  powerful  protector  was  Ahikam,  the 
son  of  Shaphan,  a  member  of  a  family  of  the  utmost 
distinction. 

Meanwhile,  we  must  follow  for  a  time  the  outward 
fortunes  of  the  king  and  of  the  world. 

Necho,  after  his  successful  advance,  had  retired  to 

'  Jer.  xxvi.  20-23.  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  Bunsen  stands  alone  in 
identifj-ing  Urijah  with  the  "  Zechariah  "  who  wrote  Zech.  xii.-xiv. 
Others  refer  Zech.  xii.  10  to  the  murder  of  Urijah. 

"  Jer.  xxvi.  18. 


422  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Egypt,  and  Jehoiakim  continued  to  be  for  three  years 
his  obsequious  servant.  An  event  of  tremendous 
importance  for  the  world  changed  the  entire  fortunes 
of  Egypt  and  of  Judah.  Nineveh  fell  with  a  crash 
which  terrified  the  nations.  We  might  apply  to  her 
the  language  which  Isaiah  applies  to  her  successor, 
Babylon  : — 

"  Sheol  from  beneath  is  moved  for  thee  to  meet  thee 
at  thy  coming  :  it  stirreth  up  the  shades  for  thee,  even 
the  Rephaim  of  the  earth ;  it  hath  raised  up  from  their 
thrones  all  the  kings  of  the  nations.  All  they  shall 
answer  and  say  unto  thee,  '  Art  thou  also  become  weak 
as  we  ?  art  thou  become  like  unto  us  ?  '  .  .  ,  All  the  kings 
of  the  nations,  all  of  them,  sleep  in  glory,  every  one  in 
his  own  house.  But  thou  art  cast  forth  away  from  thy 
sepulchre  like  an  abominable  branch,  as  the  raiment  of 
those  that  are  slain,  that  are  thrust  through  with  the 
sword,  that  go  down  to  the  stones  of  the  pit,  .  .  .  They 
that  see  thee  shall  narrowly  look  upon  thee  .  .  .  and 
say,  '  Is  this  the  man  that  m^ade  the  earth  to  tremble  ? 
that  did  shake  kingdoms  ?  that  made  the  world  as  a 
wilderness,  and  overthrew  the  cities  thereof?  that  let 
not  loose  his  prisoners  to  their  home  ? '  "  ^ 

Yes,  Ass3Tia  had  fallen  like  some  mighty  cedar  in 
Libanus,  and  the  nations  gazed  without  pity  and  with 
exultation  on  his  torn  and  scattered  branches. 

And  coincident  with  the  fate  of  Nineveh  had  been  the 
rise  of  the  Chaldaean  power. 

Nabupalussur  ^  had  been  a  general  of  one  of  the  last 
Assyrian  kings,  and  had  been  sent  by  him  with  an 
army  to  quell  a  Babylonian  revolt.  Instead  of  this, 
he  seized  the  city  and  made  himself  king.     When  the 

'  Isa.  xiv.,  passim. 

^  Nabu-pal-ussur,  "  Nebo  protect  the  son." 


xxiii.  36-xxiv.  7.]  JEHOIAKTM 


final  overthrow  and  obliteration  of  Nineveh  had  secured 
his  power,  he  sent  his  brave  and  brilliant  son  Nebuchad- 
rezzar ^  (b.c.  605)  to  secure  the  provinces  which  he  had 
wrested  from  Assyria,  and  especially  to  regain  posses- 
sion of  Carchemish,  which  commanded  the  river. 

Necho  marched  to  protect  his  conquests,  and  at 
Carchemish  the  hostile  force*s  encountered  each  other 
in  a  tremendous  battle, — immemorial  Egypt  under  the 
representative  of  its  age-long  Pharaohs ;  Babylon,  with 
her  independence  of  yesterday,  under  a  prince  hitherto 
unknown,  whose  name  was  to  become  one  of  the 
most  famous  in  the  world.  The  result  is  described  by 
Jeremiah  (xlvi,  1-12).  Egypt  was  hopelessly  defeated. 
Her  splendidly  arrayed  warriors  were  panic-stricken 
and  routed  ;  her  chief  heroes  were  dashed  to  pieces 
by  the  heav}'^  maces  of  the  Babylonians,  or  fled  without 
so  much  as  looking  back.  The  scene  was  one  of 
"  Magor-missabib  " — terror  on  every  side.'  Pharaoh's 
host  came  up  like  the  Nile  in  flood  with  its  Ethiopian 
hoplites  and  Asiatic  archers ;  but  they  were  driven 
back.  The  daughter  of  Egypt  received  a  wound  which 
no.  balm  of  Gilead  could  cure.  The  nations  heard  of 
her  shame,  and  the  prophet  pronounced  her  further 
chastisement  by  the  hands  of  Nebuchadrezzar. 

'  Nabu-kudur-ussur,  "  Nebo  protect  the  crown ''  (Schrader,  ii.  48), 
or  "the  youth"  (Oppert).  The  portrait  of  Nebuchadrezzar— this  is 
the  proper  spelling,  as  generally  in  Jeremiah — is  preserved  for  us  on 
'  black  cameo  which  he  presented  to  the  god  Merodach.  It  is  now 
in  the  Berlin  Museum,  and  shows  strong  but  not  cruel  or  ignoble 
characteristics.  It  is  copied  in  Riehm's  Handworterbuch,  ii.  1067. 
The  Jews,  as  they  were  fond  of  doing  to  their  enemies,  made  insult- 
ing puns  on  his  name.  Thus  in  the  Vayyikra  Rabba  (Wiinsche,  Bibl. 
Rabb.)  the  Three  Children  are  represented  as  saying  to  him,  "You 
are  Neboo-cad-netser:  bark  [ttabadi]  like  a  dog;  swell  like  a  water- 
jar  [kad],  and  chirp  like  a  cricket  [tserlser']" — in  allusion  to  his  madness. 

'^  Jer.  xlvi.  5  (vi.  25). 


424  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Then,  in  the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim,  the  young 
Babylonian  conqueror  swept  down  upon  Syria  and 
Palestine  like  a  bounding  leopard,  like  an  avenging 
eagle  (Hab.  i.  7,  8).  Jehoiakim  had  no  choice  but 
to  change  his  vassalhood  to  Necho  for  a  vassalage  to 
Nebuchadrezzar.^  He  might  have  suffered  severe  con- 
sequences, but  tidings  came  to  the  young  Chaldaean  that 
his  father  had  ended  his  reign  of  twenty-one  years  and 
was  dead.  For  fear  lest  disturbances  might  arise  in 
his  capital,  he  at  once  dashed  home  across  the  desert 
with  some  light  troops  by  way  of  Tadmor,  while  he 
told  his  general  to  follow  him  home  through  Syria  by 
the  longer  route.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  carried 
away  with  him  some  captives,  among  whom  were  Daniel, 
Ananias,  Azarias,  and  Misael,^  destined  hereafter  for 
such  memorable  fortunes.  Jehoiakim  himself  was 
thrown  into  fetters  to  be  carried  into  Babylon ;  but  the 
conqueror  changed  his  mind,  and  probably  thought 
that  it  would  be  safer  for  the  present  to  accept  his 
pledges  and  assurances,  and  leave  him  as  his  viceroy. 
"He  took  an  oath  of  him,"  says  Ezekiel  (xvii.  13); 
"  he  took  also  the  mighty  of  the  land."  ^ 

For  three  years  this  frivolous  egotist  who  occupied 
the  throne  of  Judah  remained  faithful  to  his  covenant 
with  the  King  of  Babylon,  but  at  the  end  of  that  time 
he  rebelled.  In  this  rebellion  he  was  again  deluded 
by  the  glamour  of  Egypt,  and  reliance  on  the  emptv 
promise  of  "horses  and  much  people."     Ezekiel  openl}' 


'  Jos.,  Antt.,  X.  xi. ;  Berosus,  p.  ii.  The  Chronicler  and  Josephus 
show  some  confusion,  caused  by  the  similarity^ of  the  names  Jehoiakim 
and  Jehoiachin. 

"^  Dan.  i.  6. 

^  We  might  infer  from  Ezek.  xvii.  I2  that  Nebuchadrezzar  actually 
took  Jehoiakim  with  him  to  Babylon. 


xxiii.  36-xxiv.  7-]  JEHOIAKIM  425 


disapproved  of  this  policy/  and  reproached  the  king  for 
his  faithlessness  to  his  oath.  Jeremiah  went  further, 
and  declared  in  the  plainest  language  that  "  Nebuchad- 
rezzar would  certainly  come  up  and  destroy  this  land, 
and  cause  to  cease  from  thence  both  man  and  beast."  ^ 

Nearer  and  nearer  the  danger  came.  At  first  the 
King  of  Babylon  was  too  busy  to  do  more  than  send 
against  the  Jewish  rebel  marauding  bands  of  Chaldaeans, 
who  acted  in  concert  with  the  hereditary  depredators 
of  Judah — Syrians,  Moabites,  and  Ammonites.  But  the 
prophet  knew  that  the  danger  would  not  end  there, 
believing  that  God  would  yet  "remove  Judah  out  of 
His  sight"  for  the  unforgiven  sins  of  Manasseh  and 
the  innocent  blood  with  which  he  had  filled  Jerusalem.^ 
At  last  Nebuchadrezzar  had  time  to  turn  closer  atten- 
tion to  the  affairs  of  Judah,  and  this  became  necessary 
because  of  the  revolt  of  Tyre  under  its  King  Ithobalus. 
In  the  stress  of  the  peril  Jehoiakim  proclaimed  a  fast 
and  a  day  of  humiliation  in  the  Temple.  Jeremiah  was 
at  this  time  "  shut  up  " — either  in  hiding,  or  in  some 
sort  of  custody.  As  he  could  not  go  and  preach  in 
person,  he  dictated  his  prophecy  to  Baruch,  who  wrote 
it  on  a  scroll,  and  went  in  the  prophet's  place  to  read 
it  in  the  Lord's  House  to  the  people  there  assembled 
from  Jerusalem  and  all  Judah  in  the  chamber  of 
Gemariah,  the  son  of  Shaphan,  in  the  inner  court,  by 
the  new  gate.*  Gemariah  was  the  brother  of  Ahikam, 
the  protector  of  the  prophet. 

No    one  was  more  painfully  alarmed  by  Jeremiah's 
prophecy  than  Micaiah,  the  son  of  Gemariah,  and  he 

'  Ezek.  xvii.  15. 

-'  Jer.  xxxvi,  29,  xxv.  9,  xxvi.  6. 

^  2  Kings  xxiv.  2-4. 

*  Gratz  thinks  that  Jeremiah's  roll  was  substantially  Jer.  xxv. 


426  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


thought  it  his  duty  to  go  and  tell  his  father  and  the 
other  princes  what  he  had  heard.  They  were  as- 
sembled in  the  scribe's  chamber,  and  sent  a  courtier 
of  Ethiopian  race — Jehudi,  the  son  of  Cushi- — bidding 
him  to  bring  the  scroll  with  him,  and  to  come  to  them.^ 

Baruch  was  a  person  of  distinction.  He  was  the 
brother  of  Seraiah,  who  is  called  in  our  A.V.  "  a  quiet 
prince,"  and  in  the  margin  *'  prince  of  Menucha "  or 
"chief  chamberlain,"  literally  "master  of  the  resting- 
place";  and  he  was  the  grandson  of  Maaseiah,  "the 
governor"  of  the  city."  The  office  imposed  on  him  by 
Jeremiah  was  so  perilous  and  painful  that  it  nearly 
broke  his  heart.  He  exclaimed  to  Jeremiah,  "  Woe  is 
me  now  !  the  Lord  hath  added  grief  to  my  sorrow.  I 
am  weary  with  my  sighing,  and  I  find  no  rest."  The 
ansv/er  which  the  prophet  was  commissioned  to  give 
him  was  very  remarkable.  It  confirmed  the  terrible 
doom  on  his  native  land,  but  added,  "'And  seekest  thou 
great  things  for  thyself?  Seek  them  not.  For,  behold, 
I  will  bring  evil  upon  all  flesh,'  saith  the  Lord:  *  but  thy 
life  will  I  give  unto  thee  for  a  prey  in  all  places  whither 
thou  goest.'  "  ^ 

Baruch  obeyed  the  summons  of  the  princes,  and  at 
their  request  sat  down  with  them  and  read  the  scroll 
in  their  ears.  When  they  had  heard  the  portentous 
prophecy,  they  turned  shuddering  to  one  another,  and 
said,  "We  must  tell  the  king  of  all  these  words." 
They  asked  Baruch  how  he  had  written  them,  and  he 
said  he  had  taken  them  down  at  the  prophet's  dictation. 
Then,  knov/ing  the  storm  which  would  burst  over  the 

'  Jos.,  Antt.,  IX,  ix.  I. 

-  Jer.  li.   59.     Ewald,    Hitzig,  and   others  take   the  title   to  mean 
"quartermaster"  (2  Chron.  xxxiv.  8). 
^  Jer.  xlv.  1-5. 


xxiv.  36-xxiv.  7.]  JEHOIAKIM  427 


bold  offenders,  the}'  said,  "  Go,  hide  thee,  thou  and 
Jeremiah,  and  let  no  man  know  where  ye  be." 

Not  daring  to  imperil  the  awful  document,  they  laid 
it  up  in  the  chamber  of  Elishama,  the  scribe,  but  went 
to  the  king  and  told  him  its  contents.  He  sent  Jehudi 
to  fetch  it,  and  to  read  it  in  their  hearing.  Jehoiakim 
and  the  illustrious  company  M^ere  seated  in  the  winter- 
chamber;  for  it  was  October,  and  a  fire  was  burning 
in  the  brazier,  where  Jehoiakim  sat  warming  himself  in 
the  chilly  weather. 

As  he  listened,  he  was  filled  not  only  with  fury,  but 
with  contempt.  Such  a  message  might  well  have 
caused  him  and  his  worst  counsellors  to  rend  their 
clothes ;  but  instead  of  this  they  adopted  a  tone  of  de- 
fiance. By  the  time  that  Jehudi  had  read  three  or  four 
columns,  Jehoiakim  snatched  the  scribe's  knife  which 
hung  at  his  girdle,  and  began  to  cut  up  the  scroll, 
with  the  intention  of  burning  it.  Seeing  his  purpose, 
Gemariah,  Elnathan,  and  Seraiah  entreated  him  not  to 
destroy  it.  But  he  would  not  listen.  He  flung  the 
fragments  into  the  brazier,  and  they  were  consumed. 
He  ordered  his  son  Jerahmeel,^  with  Seraiah  and 
Shelemiah,  to  seize  both  Baruch  and  Jeremiah,  and 
bring  them  before  him  for  punishment.  Doubtless 
they  would  have  suffered  the  fate  of  Urijah,  but 
"the  Lord  hid  them."  There  were  enough  persons 
of  power  on  their  side  to  render  their  hiding-place 
secure. 

But  the  king's  impious  indifference,  so  far  from 
making  any  difference  in  the  things  that  were,  only 
brought  down  upon  his  guilt  a    fearful  doom.     Truth 

'  Zeph.  i.  8 ;  I  Kings  xxii.  26 ;  Jer.  xxxvi.  26,  A.V.,  "  The  son  of 
Hammelech."  Comp.  xxxviii.  6.  Hammeleck  may  be  a  proper  name, 
or  a  prince  of  the  blood-royal  may  be  intended. 


428  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


cannot    be    cut    to    pieces,    or  burnt,    or    mechanically 
suppressed. 

"  Truth,  crushed  to  earth,  shall  rise  again ; 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers : 
But  error,  vanquished,  writhes  in  pain, 
And  dies  amid  her  worshippers." 

All  the  former  denunciations,  and  new  ones  added 
to  them,  were  rewritten  by  Jeremiah  and  his  faithful 
friend  in  their  hiding-place,  and  among  them  these 
words  ^ : — 

**  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Jehoiakim,  King  of  Judah, 
'  He  shall  have  none  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  David ; 
and  his  dead  body  shall  be  cast  out  in  the  day  to  the 
heat,  and  in  the  night  to  the  frost.' " 

A  frightful  drought  added  to  the  misery  of  this  reign, 
but  failed  to  bring  the  wretched  king  to  his  senses. 
Jeremiah  describes  it  ^ : — 

"  Judah  mourneth,  and  the  gates  thereof  languish ; 
they  bow  down  mourning  unto  the  ground ;  and  the  cry 
of  Jerusalem  is  gone  up.  And  the  nobles  send  their 
menials  to  the  waters  :  they  come  to  the  pits,  and  find 
no  water ;  they  return  with  their  vessels  empty ;  they 
are  ashamed  and  confounded,  and  cover  their  heads, 
because  of  the  ground  which  is  chapped,  for  that  no 
rain  hath  been  in  the  land.  .  .  .  Yea,  the  hind  also  in 
the  field  calveth,  and  forsaketh  her  young,  because 
there  is  no  grass.     And  the  wild  asses  stand  on  the 

'  "  The  '  Book,'  now  as  afterwards,  was  to  be  the  death-blow  of  the 
old  regal,  aristocratic,  sacerdotal  exclusiveness.  The  'Scribe,'  now 
first  rising  into  importance  in  the  person  of  Baruch  to  supply  the 
defects  of  the  living  Prophet,  was,  as  the  printing-press  in  later  ages, 
handing  on  the  words  of  truth,  which  else  might  have  irretrievably 
perished  "  (Stanley). 

■^  Cheyne,  Jeremiah,  p.  149;  Jcr.  xiv.  l-xv.  9. 


xxiii.  36-xxiv.  7.]  JEHOIAKIM  429 


bare  heights,  they  pant  for  air  like  jackals;  their  eyes 
fail,  because  there  is  no  herbage." 

Even  this  affliction,  so  vividly  and  pathetically  de- 
scribed, failed  to  waken  any  repentance.  And  then  the 
doom  fell.  Nebuchadrezzar  advanced  in  person  against 
Jerusalem.^  Even  the  hardy  nomad  Rechabites  had  to 
fly  before  the  Chaldaeans,  and  to  take  refuge  in  the  cities 
which  they  hated.  The  sacred  historian  tells  us  nothing 
as  to  the  manner  of  the  death  of  Jehoiakim,  only  saying 
that  he  "  slept  with  his  fathers  "  :  his  narrative  of  this 
period  is  exceedingly  meagre.  Josephus  says  that 
Nebuchadrezzar  slew  him  and  the  flower  of  the  citizens, 
and  sent  three  thousand  captives  to  Babylon.^  Some 
imagine  that  he  was  killed  by  the  Babylonians  in  a  raid 
outside  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  or  "  murdered  by  his 
own  people,  and  his  body  thrown  for  a  time  outside  the 
walls."  If  so,  the  Babylonians  did  not  war  with  the 
dead.  His  remains,  after  this  "  burial  of  an  ass,"  ^  may 
have  been  finally  suffered  to  rest  in  a  tomb.  The 
Septuagint  says  (2  Chron.  xxxvi.  8)  that  he  was 
buried  "  in  Ganosan,"  by  which  may  be  meant  the 
sepulchre  of  Manasseh  in  the  garden  of  Uzza.*     Not 

'  Nebuchadrezzar  occupies  a  larger  space  in  the  Bible  than  any 
heathen  king,  being  spoken  of  in  2  Kings,  2  Chronicles,  Ezra, 
Nehemiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Daniel. 

^  For  further  details  of  Jehoiakim  see  I  Esdras  i.  38  :  "  He  bound 
Joakim  and  the  nobles;  but  Zaraces  his  brother  he  apprehended,  and 
brought  him  out  of  Egypt."  The  allusion  is  entirely  obscure,  and 
probably  arises  from  some  corruption  of  the  text.  The  literal 
rendering  is  :  "  And  Joakim  bound  the  nobles ;  but  Zaraces  his  brother 
he  apprehended,  and  brought  him  out  of  Egypt."  Zaraces  might  be 
a  corruption  for  Zedekiah,  who  was  Jehoiakim's  half-brother.  Some 
think  that  Zaraces  is  a  corruption  for  Urijah,  and  "his  brother"  a 
clerical  error. 

'  Jer.  xxxvi.  30,  xxii.  19. 

*  LXX.,  KoX  ^KOifxiiQi)  ^luaKeifji  iv  Yavo^iw  ixera  tQv  iraripuv  iavrov. 


430  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


for  him  was  the  wailing  cry  "  Hoi^  adon  !    Hoi^  hodo  !  " 
C'  Ah,  Lord  !     Ah,  his  glory  !  "). 

"The  memory  of  the  wicked  shall  rot."  Certainly 
this  was  the  case  with  Jehoiakim.  The  Chronicler 
mysteriously  alludes  to  "his  abominations  which  he 
did,  and  that  which  was  found  in  himr^  The  Rabbis, 
interpreting  this  after  their  manner,  say  that  "the  thing 
found  "  was  the  name  of  the  demon  Codonazor,  to  whom 
he  had  sold  himself,  which  after  his  death  was  discovered 
legibly  written  in  Hebrew  letters  on  his  skin.  "  Rabbi 
Johanan  and  Rabbi  Eleazar  debated  what  was  meant 
by  'that  which  was  found  on  him.'  One  said  that  he 
tattooed  the  name  of  an  idol  upon  his  body  (iriDN'),  and 
the  other  said  that  he  had  tatooed  the  name  of  the 
god  Recreon."  " 

'  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  8. 

■''  Sanhedrin,  f.  104,  2.    For  another  allusion  see  id.  49,  I  ;  Hershon, 
Tf ensures  0/  the  Talmud,  p.  232. 


CHAPTER    XXXV 

JEHOIACHIN 

B.C.  597 

2  Kings  xxiv.  8—16 

"There  are  times  when  ancient  truths  become  modern  falsehoods, 
when  the  signs  of  God's  dispensations  are  made  so  clear  by  the 
course  of  natural  events  as  to  supersede  the  revelations  of  even  their 
most  sacred  past." — Stanley,  Lectures,  ii.  521. 

JEHOIACHIN— "Jehovah  maketh  steadfast  "—who 
is  also  called  Jeconiah,  and — perhaps  with  intentional 
slight — Coniah,  succeeded,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  to 
the  miserable  and  distracted  heritage  of  the  throne  of 
Judah.  The  "  eight  years  old  "  of  the  Chronicler  must 
be  a  clerical  error,  for  he  had  a  harem.  He  only  reigned 
for  three  months;  and  the  historian  pronounces  over 
him,  as  over  all  the  four  kings  of  the  House  of  Josiah, 
the  stereotyped  condemnation  of  evil-doing.  Was  there 
anything  in  the  manner  in  which  Josiah  had  trained  his 
family  which  could  account  for  their  unsatisfactoriness  ? 
In  Jehoiachin's  case  we  do  not  know  what  his  trans- 
gressions were,  but  perhaps  his  mother's  influence 
rendered  him  as  little  favourable  to  the  prophetic  party 
as  his  brother  Jehoiakim  had  been.  For  the  Gebirah 
was  Nehushta,  the  daughter  of  Elnathan  of  Jerusalem. 
Her  name  means  apparently  "Brass,"  and  nothing  can  be 
deduced  from  it ;  but  her  father  Elnathan  was  (as  we 

431 


432  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


have  seen)  the  envoy  who,  by  order  of  Jehoiakim, 
had  dragged  back  from  Egypt  the  martyr-prophet 
Urijah/ 

Brief  as  was  his  reign  of  three  months  and  ten  days  ^ 
— a  hundred  days,  like  that  of  his  unhappy  uncle 
Jehoahaz — he  is  largely  alluded  to  by  the  contemporary 
prophets. 

Indignant  at  the  sins  and  apostasies  of  Judah,  and 
convinced  that  her  retribution  was  nigh  at  hand, 
Jeremiah  took  with  him  an  earthen  pot  to  the  Valley 
of  Hinnom,  and  there  shivered  it  to  pieces  at  Tophet 
in  the  presence  of  certain  elders  of  the  people  and  of 
the  priests,  explaining  that  his  symbolic  action  indicated 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  On  hearing  the  tenor 
of  these  prophecies,  the  priest  Pashur,  who  was  officer 
of  the  Temple,  smote  Jeremiah  in  the  face,  and  put  him 
in  the  stocks  in  a  prominent  place  by  the  Temple  gate.^ 
Jeremiah  in  return  prophesied  that  Pashur  and  all  his 
family  should  be  carried  into  captivity,  so  that  his  name 
should  be  changed  from  Pashur  to  Magor-Missabib, 
"Terror  on  every  side." 

Against  the  king  himself  he  pronounced  the  doom  : 
"'As  I  live,'  saith  the  Lord,  *  though  Coniah,  the  son 
of  Jehoiakim,  King  of  Judah,  were  the  signet  on  My 
right  hand,  yet  will  I  pluck  thee  thence ;  and  I  will 
give  thee  into  the  hands  of  them  that  seek  thy  life,  .  .  . 
even  into  the  hand  of  Nebuchadrezzar.  .  .  .  And  I  will 
hurl  thee,  and  thy  mother  that  bare  thee,  into  another 


'  Jer.  xxvi.  22. 

^  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  9. 

^  Jer.  XX.  2.  There  seem  to  have  been  special  "stocks"  and 
"collars"  in  the  Temple,  reserved,  by  order  of  the  priest  Jehoiada, 
for  those  whom  the  priests  regarded  as  unruly  prophets  (Jer. 
xxix.  26). 


xxiv.  8-i6.]  JEHOIACHIN  433 

country  ;^  .  .  .  and  there  shall  ye  die.'  ...  Is  this  man 
Coniah  a  despised  broken  piece  of  work  ?  is  he  a 
vessel  wherein  is  no  pleasure  ?  wherefore  are  they 
hurled,  he  and  his  seed,  and  cast  into  a  land  which 
they  know  not  ?  O  land,  land,  land !  hear  the  word 
of  the  Lord.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  'Write  ye  this 
man  childless,  a  man  that  shall  not  prosper  in  his 
days :  for  no  man  of  his  seed  shall  prosper,  sitting 
upon  the  throne  of  David,  or  ruling  any  more  in 
Judah.'" 

Yet  there  must  have  been  something  in  Jeconiah 
which  impressed  favourably  the  minds  of  men.  Brief 
as  was  his  reign,  his  memory  was  never  forgotten.  We 
learn  from  the  Mishna  that  one  of  the  gates  of  Jerusalem 
—probably  that  by  which  he  left  the  city — for  ever 
bore  his  name.^  Josephus  says  that  his  captivity 
was  annually  commemorated.  Jeremiah  writes  in  the 
Lamentations : — 

"  Our  pursuers  are  swifter  than  the  eagles  of  heaven  : 
they  have  pursued  us  upon  the  mountains,  they  have 
laid  wait  for  us  in  the  wilderness.  The  breath  of  our 
nostrils,  the  anointed  of  the  Lord,  was  taken  in  their 
pits,  of  whom  we  said,  '  Under  his  shadow  we  shall  live 
among  the  heathen.' " 

Ezekiel  compares  him  to  a  young  lion  : — 

"  He  went  up  and  down  among  the  lions,  he  became 
a  young  lion,  and  learned  to  catch  the  prey.  And  he 
knew  their  palaces,  and  laid  waste  their  cities ;  and  the 
land  was  desolate,  and  the  fulness  thereof,  by  the 
noise  of  his  roaring.     Then  the  nations  set  against  him 

'  Jer.  xxii.  24-30.  The  captivity  of  the  queen-mother  struck 
men's  imaginations  (Jer.  xxix.  2). 

^  Middoth,  ii.  6,  quoted  by  Cheyne,  p.  163;  Jos.,  B.J.,  VI.  ii.  i. 
Comp.  Ezek.  i.  2. 

28 


434  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

on  every  side  from  the  provinces,  and  spread  their  net 
over  him  :  he  was  taken  in  their  pit.  And  they  put 
him  in  ward  in  hooks,  and  brought  him  to  the  King 
of  Babylon  :  they  brought  him  into  holds,  that  his 
voice  should  no  more  be  heard  upon  the  mountains 
of  Israel."  ^ 

A  prince  of  whom  a  contemporary  prophet  could 
thus  write  was  obviously  no  faineant.  Indeed,  the 
energetic  measures  which  Nebuchadrezzar  adopted 
against  him  may  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  he 
had  endeavoured  to  rouse  his  discouraged  people. 
But  what  could  he  do  against  such  a  power  as  that 
of  the  Chaldaeans  ?  Nebuchadrezzar  sent  his  generals 
against  Jerusalem  ;  and  when  it  was  ripe  for  capture, 
advanced  in  person  to  take  possession  of  it.  Resist- 
ance had  become  hopeless;  there  lay  no  chance  in 
anything  but  that  complete  submission  which  might 
possibly  avert  the  worst  effects  of  the  destruction  of 
the  city.  Accordingly,  Jeconiah,  accompanied  by  his 
mother,  his  court,  his  princes,  and  his  officers,  went 
out  in  procession,  and  threw  themselves  on  the  mercy 
of  the  King  of  Babylon.  Nebuchadrezzar  was  far  less 
brutal  than  the  Sargons  and  Assurbanipals  of  Assyria  ; 
but  Judah  had  twice  revolted,  and  the  defection  of 
Tyre  showed  him  that  the  affairs  of  Palestine  could 
no  longer  be  neglected.  He  thoroughly  despoiled  the 
Temple  and  the  palace,  and  carried  the  spoils  to 
Babylon,  as  Isaiah  had  forewarned  Hezekiah  should 
be    the    case.^      That    he    might    further   weaken    and 


'  Ezek.  xix.  6-9.     The  special  allusions  are  no  longer  certain. 

^  2  Kings  XX.  17.  The  expression  "he  cut  to  pieces  all  the  vessels 
of  gold  which  Solomon  had  made "  is  hardly  consistent  with  Ezra 
i.  7-1 1,  unless  we  understand  the  word  in  a  loose  sense. 


xxiv.  S-i6.]  JEHOIACHIN  435 

humiliate  the  cit}^,  he  stripped  it  of  its  king,  its  royal 
house,  its  court,  its  nobles,  its  soldiers,  even  its  crafts- 
men and  smiths,  and  carried  ten  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  thirty-two  captives  to  Babylon  (Jos.,  AntL,  X. 
vii.  i),  among  whom  was  the  prophet  Ezekiel.  He 
naturally  spared  Jeremiah,  who  regarded  him  as  "  the 
sword  of  Jehovah"  (Jer.  xlvii!  6),  and  as  "Jehovah's 
servant,  to  do  His  pleasure "  (Jer,  xxv.  9,  xxvii.  6, 
xliii.  10).  On  the  whole,  Nebuchadrezzar  is  not  treated 
with  abhorrence  by  the  Jews.  There  was  something 
in  his  character  which  inspired  respect ;  and  the  Jews 
deal  with  him  leniently,  both  in  their  records  and 
generally  in  their  traditions.  "  Nebuchadnezzar,"  we 
read  in  the  Talmud  (Taanith,  f  18,  2),  ''was  a  worthy 
king,  and  deserved  that  a  miracle  should  be  performed 
through  him." 

From  the  allusion  of  Ezekiel  we  might  infer  that 
Jehoiachin  was  violent  and  self-v/illed  ;  but  Josephus 
speaks  of  his  kindness  and  gentleness.^  Was  he,  as 
Jeremiah  had  prophesied,  literally  "  childless  "  ?  ^  It  is 
true  that  in  I  Chron.  iii.  17,  18,  eight  sons  are  as- 
cribed to  him,  and  among  them  Shealtiel,  in  whom  the 
royal  line  was  continued.  But  it  is  far  from  certain 
that  these  sons  were  not  the  sons  of  his  brother  Neri, 
of  the  House  of  Nathan,^  and  it  seems  that  they  were 
only  adopted  by  the  unhappy  captive.  The  Book  of 
Baruch  describes  him  weeping  by  the  Euphrates.*    But 


'  He  says  that  he  nobly  gave  himself  up  to  save  the  city  {Antt., 
X.  vii.  l).  His  captivity  was  made  an  era  from  which  to  date  Ezek. 
i.  2,  viii.  I,  xxiv.  I,  xxvi.  I,  etc.     Comp.  Susannah  1-4. 

■^  Jer.  xxii.  30,  'ariri.  His  "  son  "  Assir  (i  Chron.  iii.  17)  may  have 
been  made  an  eunuch  (Isa.  xxxix.  7). 

*  Luke  iii.  27,  31  ;  Matt.  i.  12. 

*  Baruch  i.  3,  4. 


436  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

if  we  may  trust  the  story  of  Susannah,  his  outward 
fortunes  were  peaceful,  and  he  was  allowed  to  live  in 
his  own  house  and  gardens  in  peace,  and  in  a  certain 
degree  of  splendour.^ 

'  The  favourable  notice  of  Nebuchadrezzar  in  Taanith  (quoted 
above)  is  not  found  in  Berachoth,  f.  57,  2,  where  he  is  called  "  the 
wicked."  There  are  many  wild  legends  about  him.  In  Nedarint 
(f.  65,  2),  R.  Yitzchak  says  :  "  May  melted  gold  be  poured  into  the 
mouth  of  the  wicked  Nebuchadrezzar  !  Had  not  an  angel  struck  him 
on  the  mouth,  he  would  have  outshone  all  David's  songs  and  praises." 
With  reference  to  Isa.  xxii.  i,  2,  the  Rabbis  say  that  Jeconiah  went 
to  the  Temple  roof,  and  flung  up  the  keys  into  the  air,  when  Nebu- 
chadrezzar required  them  :  ''  a  hand  took  them,  and  they  were  seen 
no  more"  (Shekalini,  vi.  5).  In  Nedarint  (f.  65,  2)  we  are  told  that 
Zedekiah's  rebellion  consisted  in  divulging,  contrary  to  his  oath, 
that  he  had  seen  Nebuchadrezzar  eating  a  live  hare  (Hershon, 
Treasures  of  the  Talmud). 


CHAPTER   XXXVI 

ZEDEKIAH,    THE  LAST  KING   OF  JUDAH 

B.C.  597—586 

2  Kings  xxiv.  18 — xxv.  7 

"Quand  ce  grand  Dieu  a  choisi  quelqu'un  pour  fetre  I'instrument 
dc  ses  desseins  rien  n'arrete  le  cours,  011  il  enchaine,  oil  il  aveugle,  ou 
il  dompte  tout  ce  qui  est  capable  de  resistance." 

BossuET,  Oraison  funebre  de  Henriette  Marie^ 

WHEN  Jehoiachin  was  carried  captive  to  Baby- 
lon, never  to  return,  his  uncle  Mattaniah 
(**  Jehovah's  gift  "),  the  third  son  of  Josiah,  was  put 
by  Nebuchadrezzar  in  his  place.  In  solemn  ratification 
of  the  new  king's  authority,  the  Babylonian  conqueror 
sanctioned  the  change  of  his  name  to  Zedekiah  ("Je- 
hovah's righteousness  ").^  He  was  twenty-one  at  his 
accession,  and  he  reigned  eleven  years. 

"  Behold,"  writes  Ezekiel,  "  the  King  of  Babylon 
came  to  Jerusalem,  and  took  the  king  thereof,  and  the 
princes  thereof,  and  brought  them  to  him  to  Babylon  ; 
and  he  took  of  the  seed  royal  "  {i.e.,  Zedekiah),  "  and 
made  a  covenant  with  him;  he  also  brought  him  under 
an  oath  :  and  took  away  the  mighty  of  the  land,  that  the 
kingdom  might  be  base,  that  it  might  not  lift  itself  up, 
but  that  by  keeping  of  his  covenant  it  might  stand."  ^ 

'  Comp.  Jen  xxiii.  6  :  Jehovah-Tsidkenu. 
*  Ezek.  xvii.  12-14. 

437 


438  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

Perhaps  by  this  covenant  Zechariah  meant  to  em- 
phasise the  meaning  of  his  name,  and  to  show  that  he 
would  reign  in  righteousness. 

The  prophet  at  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  describes 
Nebuchadrezzar  and  Jehoiachin  in  "  a  riddle." 

"  A  great  eagle,"  he  says,  "  with  great  wings  and 
long  pinions,  full  of  feathers,  which  had  divers  colours, 
came  unto  Lebanon,  and  took  the  top  of  the  cedar  " 
(Jehoiachin)  :  '*  he  cropped  off  the  topmost  of  the  young 
twigs  thereof,  and  carried  it  into  a  land  of  traffic  ;  he 
set  it  in  a  city  of  merchants.  He  took  also  of  the  seed 
of  the  land"  (Zedekiah),  "and  planted  it  in  a  fruitful  soil ; 
he  placed  it  beside  great  waters,  he  set  it  as  a  willow 
tree.  And  it  grev/,  and  became  a  spreading  vine  of  low 
stature,  whose  branches  turned  towards  him,  and  the 
roots  thereof  were  under  him  :  so  it  became  a  vine,  and 
brought  forth  branches,  and  shot  forth  sprigs."  ^ 

The  words  refer  to  the  first  three  years  of  Zedekiah's 
reign,  and  they  imply,  consistently  with  the  views  of 
the  prophets,  that,  if  the  weak  king  had  been  content 
with  the  lowly  eminence  to  which  God  had  called  him, 
and  if  he  had  kept  his  oath  and  covenant  with  Babylon, 
all  might  yet  have  been  well  with  him  and  his  land. 
At  first  it  seemed  likely  to  be  so ;  for  Zedekiah  wished 
to  be  faithful  to  Jehovah.  He  made  a  covenant  with 
all  the  people  to  set  free  their  Hebrew  slaves.  Alas  ! 
it  was  very  shortlived.  Self-sacrifice  cost  something, 
and  the  princes  soon  took  back  the  discarded  bond- 
servants."^ What  made  this  conduct  the  more  shocking 
was  that  their  covenant  to  obey  the  law  had  been  made 
in  the  most  solemn  manner  by  "  cutting  a  calf  in  twain, 
and  passing  between  the  severed   halves."^     But    the 

'  Ezek.  xvii.  i-6.  ■  Jer.  xxxiv.  8-1 1. 

^  Jer.  xxxiv.  19.     Comp.  Gen,  xv.  17. 


xxiv.  18-xxv.  7.]  ZEDEKIAH,  THE  LAST  KING  OFJUDAH  439 


weak  king  was  perfectly  powerless  in  the  hands  of  his 
tyrannous  aristocracy/ 

The  exiles  in  Babylon  were  now  the  best  and  most 
important  section  of  the  nation.  Jeremiah  compares 
them  to  good  figs ;  while  the  remnant  at  Jerusalem  were 
bad  and  withered.  He  and  Ezekiel  raised  their  voices, 
as  in  strophe  and  antistrophe,  "for  the  teaching  alike  of 
the  exiles  and  of  the  remnant  left  at  Jerusalem,  for 
whom  the  exiles  were  bidden  to  entreat  God  in  prayer. 
Zedekiah  himself  made  at  least  one  journey  northward, 
either  voluntarily  or  under  summons,  to  renew  his 
oath  and  reassure  Nebuchadrezzar  of  his  fidelity.^  He 
was  accompanied  by  Seraiah,  the  brother  of  Baruch, 
who  was  privately  entrusted  by  Jeremiah  with  a  pro- 
phecy of  the  fall  of  Babylon,  which  he  was  to  fling  into 
the  midst  of  the  Euphrates.^ 

The  last  King  of  Judah  seems  to  have  been  weak 
rather  than  wicked.  He  was  a  reed  shaken  by  the 
wind.  He  yielded  to  the  influence  of  the  last  person 
who  argued  with  him ;  and  he  seems  to  have  dreaded 
above  all  things  the  personal  ridicule,  danger,  and  oppo- 
sition which  it  was  his  duty  to  have  defied.  Yet  we 
cannot  withhold  from  him  our  deep  sympathy ;  for  he 
was  born  in  terrible  times — to  witness  the  death-throes 
of  his  country's  agony,  and  to  share  in  them.  It  was 
no  longer  a  question  of  independence,  but  only  of  the 
choice  of  servitudes,  Judah  was  like  a  silly  and  tremb- 
ling sheep  between  two  huge  beasts  of  prey.* 

'  This  is  strikingly  shown  by  his  piteous  remark  to  them  in 
Jer.  xxxviii.  5. 

^  He  first  sent  two  of  Jeremiah's  friends,  Elasah  and  Gemariah, 
the  son  of  Shaphan. 

'  Some  critics  have  doubted  the  authenticity  of  Jer.  li.,  lii. 

*  2  Chron.  xxxvi,  14-21  ;  Stanlej',  ii.  528;  Milman,  i.  394. 


440  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

Only  thus  can  we  account  for  the  strange  apostasies 
— "  the  abominations  of  the  heathen  " — with  which  he 
permitted  the  Temple  to  be  polluted  ;  and  for  the  ill- 
treatment  which  he  allowed  to  be  inflicted  on  Jeremiah 
and  other  prophets,  to  whom  in  his  heart  he  felt  inclined 
to  listen. 

What  these  abominations  were  we  read  with  amaze- 
ment in  the  eighth  chapter  of  Ezekiel.  The  prophet 
is  carried  in  vision  to  Jerusalem,  and  there  he  sees  the 
Asherah — "  the  image  which  provoketh  to  jealousy  " — 
which  had  so  often  been  erected  and  destroyed  and  re- 
erected.  Then  through  a  secret  door  he  sees  creeping 
things,  and  abominable  beasts,  and  the  idol-blocks  of  the 
House  of  Israel  pourtrayed  upon  the  wall,  while  several 
elders  of  Israel  stood  before  them  and  adored,  with 
censers  in  their  hands — among  whom  he  must  specially 
have  grieved  to  see  Jaazaneiah,  the  son  of  Shaphan,^ 
flattering  himself,  as  did  his  followers,  that  in  that  dark 
chamber  Jehovah  saw  them  not.  Next  at  the  northern 
gate  he  sees  Zion's  daughters  weeping  for  Tammuz,  or 
Adonis.  Once  more,  in  the  inner  court  of  the  Temple, 
between  the  porch  and  the  altar,  he  sees  about  twenty- 
five  men  with  their  backs  to  the  altar,  and  their  faces  to 
the  east ;  and  they  worshipped  the  sun  towards  the  east ; 
and,  lo  I  they  put  the  vine  branch  to  their  nose.^  Were 
not  these  crimes  sufficient  to  evoke  the  wrath  of  Jehovah, 
and  to  alienate  His  ear  from  prayers  offered  b}^  such 
polluted  worshippers  ?    Egypt,  Assyria,  Syria,  Chaldaea, 


'  Shaphan's  other  sons,  Gemariah,  Ahikam,  Elasah,  and  his  grand- 
son Gedaliah,  were  friends  of  Jeremiah. 

■^  Ezek.  viii.  17.  The  allusion  seems  to  be  to  a  custom  like  that 
of  the  Parsees,  who  hold  a  branch  of  tamarisk  or  pomegranate  twigs 
(called  barsom)  before  their  mouths  when  they  adore  the  sacred  fire. 
Strabo,xv.  732;  Spiegel,  Zcndnvcsta,  ii.,  p.  \y.v\n;  Evan.  A Itcriliumsk.,  iii. 
571  (Orelli,  ad  loc.').    Lightfoot  explains  it,  "add  fuel  to  their  wrath." 


xxiv.  18-xxv.  7.]  ZEDEKIAH,  THE  LAST  KING  OFJUDAH  441 

all  contributed  their  idolatrous  elements  to  the  detestable 
syncretism  ;  and  the  king  and  the  priests  ignored,  per- 
mitted, or  connived  at  it.^  This  must  surely  be  answered 
for.  How  could  it  have  been  otheinvise  ?  The  king 
and  the  priests  were  the  ofificial  guardians  of  the 
Temple,  and  these  aberrations  could  not  have  gone  on 
without  their  cognisance.  There  was  another  party 
of  sheer  formalists,  headed  by  men  like  the  priest 
Pashur,  who  thought  to  make  talismans  of  rites  and 
shibboleths,  but  had  no  sincerity  of  heart-religion.^  To 
these,  too,  Jeremiah  was  utterly  opposed.  In  his 
opinion  Josiah's  reformation  had  failed.  Neither  Ark, 
nor  Temple,  nor  sacrifice  were  anything  in  the  world 
to  him  in  comparison  with  true  religion.  All  the 
prophets  with  scarcely  one  exception  are  anti-ritualists  ; 
but  none  more  decidedly  so  than  the  prophet-priest. 
His  name  is  associated  in  tradition  with  the  hiding 
of  the  Ark,  and  a  belief  in  its  ultimate  restoration ;  yet 
to  Jeremiah,  apart  from  the  moral  and  spiritual  truths 
of  which  it  was  the  material  symbol,  the  Ark  was  no 
better  than  a  wooden  chest.  His  message  from  Jehovah 
is,  "  I  will  give  you  pastors  according  to  My  heart,  .  .  . 
and  they  shall  sa}''  no  more,  '  The  Ark  of  the  Covenant 
of  the  Lord ' :  neither  shall  it  come  to  mind ;  neither 
shall  they  remember  it ;  neither  shall  they  miss  it ; 
neither  shall  it  be  made  any  more."^ 

Doom  followed  the  guilt  and  folly  of  king,  priests, 
and  people.  If  political  wisdom  were  insufficient  to 
show  Zedekiah  that  the  necessities  of  the  case  were  an 
indication  of  God's  will,  he  had  the  warnings  of  the 
prophets  constantly  ringing  in  his  ears,  and  the  assur- 

'  Ezek.  xvi.  15-34. 

*  Jer.  vii.  4,  21-28,  viii.  8,  xxiii.  31-33,  xxxi.  33,  34. 

'^  Jer.  iii.  15,  16. 


442  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

ance  that  he  must  remain  faithful  to  Nebuchadrezzar. 
But  he  was  in  fear  of  his  own  princes  and  courtiers. 
A  combined  embassy  reached  him  from  the  kings  of 
Edom,  Ammon,  Moab,  Tyre  and  Sidon,  urging  him 
to  join  in  a  league  against  Babylon.^  This  embassy 
was  supported  by  a  powerful  party  in  Jerusalem.  Their 
solicitations  were  rendered  more  plausible  by  the  recent 
accession  (b.c.  590)  of  the  young  and  vigorous  Pharaoh 
Hophrah — the  Apries  of  Herodotus  " — to  the  throne  of 
Egypt,  and  by  the  recrudescence  of  that  incurable 
disease  of  Hebrew  politics,  a  confidence  in  the  idle 
promises  of  Egypt  to  supply  the  confederacy  with  men 
and  horses.^  In  vain  did  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  uplift 
their  warning  voices.  The  blind  confidence  of  the  king 
and  of  the  nobles  was  sustained  by  the  flattering  visions 
and  promises  of  false  prophets,  prominent  among  whom 
was  a  certain  Hananiah,  the  son  of  Azur,  of  Gibeon, 
''  the  prophet."  *  To  indicate  the  futility  of  the  con- 
templated rebellion,  Jeremiah  had  made  "  thongs  and 
poles "  with  yokes,  and  had  sent  them  to  the  kings, 
whose  embassy  had  reached  Jerusalem,  with  a  message 
of  the  most  emphatic  distinctness,  that  Nebuchadrezzar 
was  God's  appointed  servant,  and  that  the}'  must  serve 
him  till  God's  own  appointed  time.  If  they  obeyed  this 
intimation,  they  would  be  left  undisturbed  in  their  own 
lands  ;  if  they  disobeyed  it,  they  would  be  scourged  into 
absolute  submission  by  the  sword,  the  famine,  and  the 
pestilence.  Jeremiah  delivered  the  same  oracle  to  his 
own  king.'' 

'  Jer.  xxvii.  3.  -  Herod.,  ii.  l6l. 

^  Psammis,  the   son  of  Necho,  only  reigned   six  years ;  Hophrah 
(B.C.  594)  was  his  son. 

■*  The  LXX.  calls  him  "  the  false  prophet." 

*  Jer.  xxvii.  i-8,  12-18.    On  vv.  16-22  see  the  LXX. 


xxiv.  18-XXV.  7.]  ZEDEKIAH,  THE  LAST  KING  OFJUDAH  443 

The  warning  was  rendered  unavailing  by  the  conduct 
of  Hananiah.  He  prophesied  that  within  two  full  years 
God  would  break  the  yoke  of  the  King  of  Babylon  ;  and 
that  the  -captive  Jeconiah,  and  the  nobles,  and  the 
vessels  of  the  House  of  the  Lord  would  be  brought 
back.  Jeremiah,  by  way  of  an  .acted  parable,  had  worn 
round  his  neck  one  of  his  own  yokes.  Hananiah,  in 
the  Temple,  snatched  it  off,  broke  it  to  pieces,  and  said, 
**  So  will  I  break  the  yoke  of  Nebuchadrezzar  from  the 
neck  of  all  nations  within  the  space  of  two  full  years."  ^ 

We  can  imagine  the  delight,  the  applause,  the  enthu- 
siasm with  which  the  assembled  people  listened  to 
these  bold  predictions.  Hananiah  argued  with  them, 
so  to  speak,  in  shorthand,  for  he  appealed  to  their 
desires  and  to  their  prejudices.  It  is  always  the  ten- 
dency of  nations  to  say  to  their  prophets,  "  Say  not 
unto  us  hard  things :  speak  smooth  things  ;  prophesy 
deceits." 

Against  Hananiah  personally  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  charge,  except  that  in  listening  to  the  lying 
spirit  of  his  own  desires  he  could  not  hear  the  true 
message  of  God.  But  he  did  not  stand  alone."^  Among 
the  children  of  the  captivity,  his  promises  were  echoed 
by  two  downright  false  prophets,  Ahab  and  Zedekiah, 
the  son  of  Maaseiah,  who  prophesied  lies  in  God's 
name.  They  were  men  of  evil  life,  and  a  fearful  fate 
overtook  them.  Their  words  against  Babylon  came  to 
the  ears  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  and  they  were  "roasted  in 
the  fire,"  so  that  the  horror  of  their  end  passed  into 

'  Here  (Jer.  xxviii.  11,  and  in  xxxiv.  i,  xxxix.  5)  the  name  is 
written  "Nebuchadnezzar";  everywhere  else  in  Jeremiah  it  is 
"  Nebuchadrezzar." 

"  Part  of  his  dispute  with  Jeremiah  turned  on  the  recovery  or  non- 
recovery  of  the  Temple  vessels.  Zedekiah  is  said  to  have  given  a  set 
of  silver  vessels  to  replace  the  old  ones  (Baruch  i.  8). 


444  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

a  proverb  and  a  curse/  Truly  God  fed  these  false 
prophets  with  wormwood,  and  gave  them  poisonous 
water  to  drink.^ 

After  the  action  of  Hananiah,  Jeremiah  went  home 
stricken  and  ashamed :  apparently  he  never  again 
uttered  a  public  discourse  in  the  Temple.  It  took 
him  by  surprise ;  and  he  was  for  the  moment,  perhaps, 
daunted  by  the  plausive  echo  of  the  multitude  to  the 
lying  prophet.  But  when  he  got  home  the  answer  of 
Jehovah  came :  "  Go  and  tell  Hananiah,  Thou  hast 
broken  the  yokes  of  wood ;  but  thou  hast  made  for  them 
yokes  of  iron.  I  have  put  a  yoke  of  iron  on  the  necks  of 
all  these  nations,  that  they  may  serve  Nebuchadrezzar. 
Hear  now,  Hananiah,  The  Lord  hath  not  sent  thee  : 
thou  makest  this  people  to  trust  in  a  lie.  Behold,  this 
year  thou  shalt  die,  because  thou  hast  spoken  revolt 
against  the  Lord.  What  hath  the  chaff  to  do  with  the 
wheat  ?  saith  the  Lord."  ^ 

Two  months  after  Hananiah  lay  dead,  and  men's 
minds  were  filled  with  fear.  They  saw  that  God's 
word  was  indeed  as  a  fire  to  burn,  and  as  a  hammer 
to  dash  in  pieces.*  But  meanwhile  Zedekiah  had  been 
over-persuaded  to  take  the  course  which  the  true 
prophets  had  forbidden.  Misled  by  the  false  prophets 
and  mincing  prophetesses  whom  Ezekiel  denounced,^ 
who  daubed  men's  walls  with  whitened  plaster,  he  had 
sent  an  embassy  to  Pharaoh  Hophrah,  asking  for  an 
army  of  infantry  and  cavalry  to  support  his  rebellion 
from  Assyria.®  In  the  eyes  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel 
the  crime  did  not  only  consist  in  defying  the  exhorta- 
tions of  those  whom  Zedekiah  knew  to  be  Jehovah's 

'  Jer.  xxix.  21-23.  *  }^^-  xxiii.  29, 

*  Jer,  xxiii.  9-32.  ^  Ezek.  xiii.  1-23. 

^  Jer.  xxviii.  13-16,  xxiii.  28.  "  Ezek.  xvii.  25. 


xxiv.  18-XXV.7.]  ZEDEKIAH,  THE  LAST  KING  OFJUDAH  445 

accredited  messengers.  In  mitigation  of  this  offence 
he  might  have  pleaded  the  extreme  difficulty  of  dis- 
criminating the  truth  amid  the  ceaseless  babble  of  false 
pretenders.^  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  had  broken 
the  solemn  oath  which  he  had  taken  to  Nebuchadrezzar 
in  the  name  of  God,  and  the  sacred  covenant  which  he 
seems  to  have  twice  ratified  With  him.^  This  it  was 
which  raised  the  indignation  of  the  faithful,  and  led 
Ezekiel  to  prophesy  : — 

"  Shall  he  prosper  ? 
Shall  he  escape  that  doeth  such  things  ? 
Or  shall  he  break  the  covenant  and  be  believed  ? 
'  As  I  live,'  saith  the  Lord  God,  '  surely  in  the  place  where  the  king 

dwelleth  that  made  him  king, 
"Whose  oath  he  despised  and  whose  covenant  he  broke, 
Even  with  him  in  the  midst  of  Babylon,  shall  he  die.'"^ 

Sad  close  for  a  dynasty  which  had  now  lasted  for 
nearly  five  centuries  ! 

As  for  Pharaoh,  he  too  was  an  eagle,  as  Nebuchad- 
rezzar was — a  great  eagle  with  great  wings  and  many 
feathers,  but  not  so  great.  The  trailing  vine  of  Judah 
bent  her  roots  towards  him,  but  it  should  wither  in 
the  furrows  when  the  east  wind  touched  it.* 

The  result  of  Zedekiah's  alliance  with  Egypt  was 
the  intermission  of  his  yearly  tribute  to  Assyria ;  and 
at  last,  in  the  ninth  year  of  Zedekiah,  Nebuchadrezzar 
was  aroused  to  put  down  this  Palestinian  revolt,  sup- 
ported as  it  was  by  the  vague  magnificence  of  Egypt. 

'  Josephus  rightly  attributes  the  unfortunate  career  of  Zedekiah  to 
the  weakness  with  which  he  listened  to  evil  counsellors,  and  to  the 
insclent  multitude. 

-'  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  13  ;  Jer.  Hi.  3. 

s  Ezek.  xvii.  15,  16,  1 8,  19.  1 

*  Ezek.  xvii.  7-10. 


446  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


Jeremiah  had  said,  "  Pharaoh,  the  King  of  Egypt,  is 
but  a  noise  [or  desolation]  :  he  hath  passed  the  time 
appointed."^ 

This  was  about  the  year  589.  In  598  Nebuchadrezzar 
had  carried  Jehoachin  into  captivity,  and  ever  since  then 
some  of  his  forces  had  been  engaged  in  the  vain  effort 
to  capture  Tyre,  which  still,  after  a  ten  years'  siege, 
drew  its  supplies  from  the  sea,  and  remained  impreg- 
nable on  her  island  rock.  He  did  not  choose  to  raise 
this  long-continued  siege  by  diverting  the  troops  to 
beleaguer  so  strong  a  fortress  as  Jerusalem,  and  there- 
fore he  came  in  person  from  Babylon. 

In  Ezek.  xxi.  20-24  we  have  a  singular  and  vivid 
glimpse  of  his  march.  On  his  way  he  came  to  a  spot 
where  two  roads  branched  off  before  him.  One  led 
ta  Rabbath,  the  capital  of  Ammon,  on  the  east  of 
Jordan  ;  the  other  to  Jerusalem,  on  the  west.  Which 
road  should  he  take  ?  Personally,  it  was  a  matter  of 
indifference ;  so  he  threw  the  burden  of  responsibility 
upon  his  gods  by  leaving  the  decision  to  the  result  of 
belomancy."  Taking  in  his  hand  a  sheaf  of  brightened 
arrows,  he  held  them  upright,  and  decided  to  take  the 
route  indicated  by  the  fall  of  the  greater  number  of 
arrows.  He  confirmed  his  uncertainty  by  consulting 
teraphim,  and  by  hepatoscopy — i.e.,  by  examining  the 
liver  of  slain  victims.  Rabbath  and  the  Ammonites 
were  not  to  be  spared,  but  it  was  upon  the  covenant- 
breaking  king  and    city  that  the  first  vengeance  was 

'  Jer.  xlvi.  17. 

^  Another  form  of  belomancy  is  still  commonly  practised  among 
the  Arabs.  Three  arrows  are  placed  in  a  vessel  :  on  one  of  them  is 
written,  "  My  God  permits  me  " ;  on  another,  "  My  God  forbids  me  " ; 
the  third  is  blank.  They  are  then  shaken,  and  the  decision  is  guided 
by  the  one  which  falls  out  first.  Comp.  Homer,  Iliad,  iii.  316; 
Speaker's  Commentary,  ad  loc. 


xxiv.  18-XXV.7.]  ZEDEKIAH,  THE  LAST  KING  OFJUDAH  447 


to  fall.^  And  this  is  what  the  prophet  lias  to  say  to 
Zedekiah  : — 

"  And  thou,  O  deadly-wounded  wicked  one,  the 
prince  of  Israel,  whose  day  is  come  in  the  time  of  the 
iniquity  of  the  end  ;  thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  '  Remove 
the  mitre,  and  take  off  the  crown.  This  shall  be  not 
thus.  Exalt  the  low,  and  abase  that  which  is  high. 
An  overthrow,  overthrow,  overthrow,  will  I  make  it  : 
this  also  shall  be  no  more,  until  He  come  whose  right 
it  is  :  and  I  will  give  it  Him."^ 

So  (b.c.  587)  Jerusalem  was  delivered  over  to  siege, 
even  as  Ezekiel  had  sketched  upon  a  tile.^  It  was  to 
be  assailed  in  the  old  Assyrian  manner — as  we  see  it 
represented  in  the  British  Museum  bas-relief,  where 
Sennacherib  is  portrayed  in  the  act  of  besieging 
Lachish — with  forts,  mounds,  and  battering-rams  ;  and 
Ezekiel  had  also  been  bidden  to  put  up  an  iron  plate 
between  him  and  his  pictured  city,  to  represent  the 
mantelet  from  behind  which  the  archers  shot. 

In  this  dread  crisis  Zedekiah  sent  Zephaniah,  the  son 
of  Maaseiah,  the  priest,  and  Jehucal,  to  Jeremiah,  en- 
treating his  prayers  for  the  city,*  for  he  had  not  yet 
been  put  in  prison.  Doubtless  he  prayed,  and  at  first 
it  looked  as  if  deliverance  would  come.  Pharaoh 
Hophrah  put  in  motion  the  Egyptian  arm}'^  with  its 
Carian  mercenaries  and  Soudanese  negroes,  and  Nebu- 
chadrezzar v/as  sufficiently  alarmed  to  raise  the  siege 
and  go  to  meet  the  Egyptians.  The  hopes  of  the 
people  probably  rose  high,  though   multitudes   seized 

'  Ezek.  xxi.  28-32, 

^  An  allusion  to  the  restoration  of  Jeconiah  or  his  descendants,  and 
to  the  far-off  Messiah,  meek  and  lowly. 
^  Ezek.  iv.  1-3. 
*  Jer.  xxxvii.  3. 


448  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

the  opportunity  to  fly  to  the  mountains.^  The  cir- 
cumstances closely  resembled  those  under  which 
Sennacherib  had  raised  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  to  go 
to  meet  Tirhakah  the  Ethiopian ;  and  perhaps  there 
were  some,  and  the  king  among  them,  who  looked  that 
such  a  wonder  might  be  vouchsafed  to  him  through 
the  prayers  of  Jeremiah  as  had  been  vouchsafed  to 
Hezekiah  through  the  prayers  of  Isaiah.  Not  for  a 
moment  did  Jeremiah  encourage  these  vain  hopes.  To 
Zephaniah,  as  to  an  earlier  deputation  from  the  king, 
when  he  sent  Pashur  with  him  to  inquire  of  the 
prophet,  Jeremiah  returned  a  remorseless  answer.  It 
is  too  late.  Pharaoh  shall  be  defeated ;  even  if  the 
Chaldaean  army  were  smitten,  its  wounded  soldiers 
would  suffice  to  besiege  and  burn  Jerusalem,  and  take 
into  captivity  the  miserable  inhabitants  after  they  had 
suffered  the  worst  horrors  of  a  besieged  city.^ 


'  Ezek.  vii.  1 6. 

2  Jer.  xxi,  i-io,  xxxvii.  1-17.  Josephus  says  that  Pharaoh  was 
defeated  {Antt.,  X  vii.  3).  Jeremiah  merely  says  that  he  and  his  army 
returned  to  their  own  land. 


CHAPTER  'XXXVII 

JEREMIAH  AND  HIS  PROPHECIES 

Jer.  i.  I— V.  31 

"Count  me  o'er  earth's  chosen  heroes— they  were  souls  that  stood 
alone, 
While  the  men  they  agonised  for  hurled  the  contumelious  stone  ; 
Stood  serene,  and  down  the  future  saw  the  golden  beam  incline 
To  the  side  of  perfect  justice,  mastered  by  their  faith  divine, 
By   one   man's   plain   truth   to   manhood    and    to   God's   supreme 
design."  Lowell. 

TRULY  Jeremiah  was  a  prophet  of  evil.     The  king 
might  have    addressed    him    in    the    words  with 
which  Agamemnon  reproaches  Kalchas.^ 

"Augur  accursed  !  denouncing  mischief  still : 
Prophet  of  plagues,  for  ever  boding  ill ! 
Still  must  that  tongue  some  wounding  message  bring, 
And  still  thy  priestly  pride  provoke  thy  king." 

Never  was  there  a  sadder  man."^  Like  Phocion,  he 
believed  in  the  enemies  of  his  country  more  than  he 
believed  iu  his  own  people.  He  saw  "  Too  late " 
written  upon  everything.  He  saw  himself  all  but  uni- 
versally execrated  as  a  coward,  as  a  traitor,  as  one  who 
weakened  the  nerves  and  damped  the  courage  of  those 

'  Homer,  Iliad,  i.  106-iog. 

^  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Jer.  xxxi.   1-34  is  so  hopeful 
that  it  h.as  been  cnlled  "  the  Gospel  before  Christ." 

449  29 


4SO  THE.  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


who  were  fighting  against  fearful  odds  for  their  wives 
and  children,  the  ashes  of  their  fathers,  their  altars, 
and  their  hearths.  It  had  become  his  fixed  conviction 
that  any  prophets — and  there  were  a  multitude  of 
them — who  prophesied  peace  were  false  prophets,  and 
ipso  facto  proved  themselves  conspirators  against  the 
true  well-being  of  the  land.^  In  point  of  fact,  Jeremiah 
lived  to  witness  the  death-struggle  of  the  idea  of 
religion  in  its  predominantly  national  character  (vii. 
8-i6,  vi.  8).  "The  continuity  of  the  national  faith 
refused  to  be  bound  up  with  the  continuance  of  the 
nation.  When  the  nation  is  dissolved  into  individual 
elements,  the  continuity  and  ultimate  victory  of  the 
true  faith  depends  on  the  relations  of  Jehovah  to 
individual  souls  out  of  which  the  nation  shall  be 
bound  up."  ^ 

And  now  a  sad  misfortune  happened  to  Jeremiah. 
His  home  was  not  at  Jerusalem,  but  at  Anathoth, 
though  he  had  long  been  driven  from  his  native  village 
by  the  murderous  plots  of  his  own  kindred,  and  of  those 
who  had  been  infuriated  by  his  incessant  prophecies  of 
doom.  When  the  Chaldseans  retired  from  Jerusalem 
to  encounter  Pharaoh,  he  left  the  distressed  city  for  the 
land  of  Benjamin,  "  to  receive  his  portion  from  thence  in 
the  midst  of  the  people  " — apparently,  for  the  sense  is 
doubtful,  to  claim  his  dues  of  maintenance  as  a  priest. 
But  at  the  city  gate  he  was  arrested  by  Irijah,  the  son 
of  Shelemiah,  the  captain  of  the  watch,  who  charged 
him  with  the  intention  of  deserting  to  the  Chaldaeans. 
Jeremiah  pronounced  the  charge  to  be  a  lie ;  but  Irijah 
took  him  before  the  princes,  who  hated  him,  and  con- 
signed him  to  dreary  and  dangerous  imprisonment  in 

'  Jer.  vi.  14,  viii.  1 1 ;  Ezek.  xiii.  10. 

'  W.  R.  Smith,""  Prophets  "'  {Enc,  Brit.). 


Jf-r.  i.  i-v.  31.]    JEREMIAH  AND  HIS  PROPHECIES         451 


the  house  of  Jonathan  the  scribe.  In  the  vaults  of 
this  "house  of  the  pit"  he  continued  many  days.^  The 
king  sympathised  with  him :  he  would  gladly  have 
delivered  him,  if  he  could,  from  the  rage  of  the  princes ; 
but  he  did  not  dare.^ 

Meanwhile,  the  siege  went  on,  and  the  people  never 
forgot  the  anguish  of  despair  with  which  they  waited 
the  reinvestiture  of  the  city.  Ever  since  that  da}'  it 
has  been  kept  as  a  fast — the  fast  of  Tebeth.  Zedekiah, 
yearning  for  some  advice,  or  comfort — if  comfort  were 
to  be  had — from  the  only  man  whom  he  really  trusted, 
sent  for  Jeremiah  to  the  palace,  and  asked  him  in 
despicable  secrecy,  "  Is  there  any  word  from  the  Lord  ?  " 
The  answer  was  the  old  one  :  "  Yes  1  Thou  shalt  be 
delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  King  of  Babylon." 
Jeremiah  gave  it  without  quailing,  but  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity to  ask  on  what  plea  he  was  imprisoned.  Was 
he  not  a  prophet  ?  Had  he  not  prophesied  the  return 
of  the  Chaldaean  host  ?  Where  now  were  all  the 
prophets  who  had  prophesied  peace?  Would  not  the 
king  at  least  save  him  from  the  detestable  prison  in 
which  he  was  dying  by  inches  ? 

The  king  heard  his  petition,  and  he  was  removed  to 
a  better  prison  in  the  court  of  the  watch,  where  he 
received  his  daily  piece  of  bread  out  of  the  bakers' 
street  until  all  the  bread  in  the  city  was  spent. 

For  now  utter  famine  came  upon  the  wretched  Jews, 
to  add  to  the  hon-ors  and  accidents  of  the  siege.     If 


'  Jer.  xxxvii.  11-15. 

'^  Jer.  xxxviii.  5.  The  Jewish  aristocracy  consisted,  saj's  Gratz, 
of  three  classes :  the  beni  hammelech,  or  "  king's  sons  " — i.e.,  princes 
of  the  blood-royal;  the  roshi  aboili,  "heads  of  the  fathers,"  or 
zekenhu,  "  elders  " ;  and  the  abhodl  hanimekch,  "  king's  servants,"  or 
"courtiers"  (ii,  446). 


452  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

we  would  know  what  that  famine  was  in  its  appalling 
intensity,  we  must  turn  to  the  Book  of  Lamentations. 
Those  elegies,  so  unutterably  plaintive,  may  not  be  by 
the  prophet  himself,  but  only  by  his  school ;  but  they 
show  us  what  was  the  frightful  condition  of  the  people 
of  Jerusalem  before  and  during  the  last  six  months  of 
the  siege.  "  The  sword  of  the  wilderness  " — the  roving 
and  plundering  Bedouin — made  it  impossible  to  get  out 
of  the  city  in  any  direction.  Things  were  as  dreadfully 
hopeless  as  they  had  been  in  Samaria  when  it  was 
besieged  by  Benhadad.^  Hunger  and  thirst  reduce 
human  nature  to  its  most  animal  conditions.  They 
obliterate  the  merest  elements  of  morality.  They  make 
men  like  beasts,  and  reveal  the  ferocity  which  is  never 
quite  dead  in  any  but  the  purest  and  loftiest  souls. 
They  arouse  the  least  human  instincts  of  the  aboriginal 
animal.  The  day  came  when  there  was  no  more  bread 
left  in  Jerusalem.^  The  fair  and  ruddy  Nazarites,  who 
had  been  purer  than  snow,  whiter  than  milk,  more 
ruddy  than  corals,  lovely  as  sapphires,  became  like 
withered  boughs,^  and  even  their  friends  did  not  recog- 
nise them  in  those  ghastly  and  emaciated  figures  which 
crept  about  the  streets.  The  daughters  of  Zion,  more 
cruel  in  their  hunger  than  the  very  jackals,  lost  the 
instincts  of  pity  and  motherhood.  Mothers  and  fathers 
devoured  their  own  little  unweaned  children.*  There 
was  parricide  as  well  as  infanticide  in  the  horrible 
houses.  They  seemed  to  plead  that  none  could  blame 
them,  since  the  lives  of  many  had  become  an  intolerable 
anguish,  and  no  man  had  bread  for  his  little  ones,  and 

'  Lam.  V.  4. 

^  Jer.  xxxvii.  21,  xxxviii.  9,  Hi.  6. 

^  Lam.  iv.  7,  8. 

*  Lam.  iv.  10,  ii.  20;  Ezek.  v.  10;  Baruch  ii.  3. 


Jer.i.  I-V.31.]    JEREMIAH  AND  HIS  PROPHECIES        453 


their  tongues  cleaved  to  the  roof  of  their  mouth.  All 
that  happened  six  centuries  later,  during  the  siege  of 
Jerusalem  by  Titus,  happened  now.  Then  Martha, 
the  daughter  of  Nicodemus  ben-Gorion,  once  a  lady  of 
enormous  wealth,  was  seen  picking  the  grams  of  corn 
from  the  offal  of  the  streets;  now  the  women  who  had 
fed  delicately  and  been  brought  up  in  scarlet  were  seen 
sitting  desolate  on  heaps  of  dung.^  And  Jehovah  did 
not  raise  His  hand  to  save  His  guilty  and  dying  people. 
It  was  too  late  ! 

And  as  is  always  the  case  in  such  extremities,  there 
were  men  who  stood  defiant  and  selfish  amid  the 
universal  misery.  Murder,  oppression,  and  luxury  con- 
tinued to  prevail.  The  godless  nobles  did  not  intermit 
the  building  of  their  luxurious  houses,  asserting  to 
themselves  and  others  that,  after  all,  the  final  catas- 
trophe was  not  near  at  hand.  The  sudden  death  of  one 
of  them — Pelatiah,  the  son  of  Benaiah — while  Ezekiel 
was  prophesying,  terrified  the  prophet  so  much  that  he 
flung  himself  on  his  face  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice, 
"  Ah,  Lord  God  !  wilt  Thou  make  a  full  end  of  the 
remnant  of  Israel  ?  "  But  on  the  others  this  death 
by  the  visitation  of  God  seems  to  have  produced  no 
effect ;  and  the  glory  of  God  left  the  city,  borne  away 
upon  its  cherubim-chariot.^ 

Even  under  the  stress  of  these  dreadful  circum- 
stances the  Jews  held  out  with  that  desperate  tenacity 
which  has  often  been  shown  by  nations  fighting  behind 
strong  walls  for  their  very  existence,  but  by  no  nation 
more  decidedly  than  by  the  Jews.  And  if  the  rebel- 
party,  and  the  lying  prophets  who  had  brought  the 
city  to  this  pass,  still  entertained  any  hopes  either  of 

'  Lam.  iv.  5.     Sec  Stanley,  Lectures,  ii.  470.  -  Ezek.  xi.  22. 


454  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


a  diversion  caused  by  Pharaoh  Hophrah,  or  of  some 
miraculous  deliverance  such  as  that  which  had  saved 
the   city   from    Sennacherib    years   earlier,    it    is    not 
unnatural    that    they    should    have   regarded  Jeremiah 
with  positive  fury.     For  he  still  continued  to  prophesy 
the  captivity.     What   specially  angered  them  was  his 
message  to  the  people  that  all  who  remained  in  Jeru- 
salem should   die   by   the   sword,   the  famine,   and  the 
pestilence,  but  that  those  who  deserted  to  the  Chaldaeans 
should  live.     It  was  on  the  ground  of  his  having  said 
this  that  they  had  imprisoned  him  as  a  deserter ;  and 
when  Pashur  and  his  son  Gedaliah  heard   that  he  was 
still  saying  this,  they  and  the  other  princes  entreated 
Zedekiah  to  put  him  to  death  as  a  pernicious  traitor, 
who   weakened    the    hands    of    the    patriot    soldiers. 
Jeremiah  was  not  guilty  of  the  lack  of  patriotism  with 
\vhich   they   charged   him.     The  day   of  independence 
had  passed  for  ever,  and  Babylon,  not  Egypt,  was  the 
appointed  suzerain.     The  counselling  of  submission — 
as    many   a   victorious    chieftain    has    been    forced    at 
last  to  counsel  it,  from  the  days  of  Hannibal  to  those 
of  Thiers — is   often   the    true    and    the    only   possible 
patriotism  in  doomed  and  decadent  nations.     Zedekiah 
timidly   abandoned    the    prophet    to    the    rage    of    his 
enemies  ;    but  being  afraid  to   murder  him   openly  as 
Urijah  had  been  murdered,  they  flung  him  into  a  well 
in  the  dungeon  of  Malchiah,  the  king's  son.     Into  the 
mire  of  this  pit  he  sank  up  to  the  arms,  and  there  they 
purposely  left  him  to  starve  and  rot.^    But  if  no  Israelite 
pitied   him,    his   condition    moved   the   compassion   of 
Ebed-Melech,  an  Ethiopian,  one  of  the  king's  eunuch- 
chamberlains.     He  hurried  to  the  king  in  a  storm  of 

'  This  may  possibly  be  alluded  to  in  Psalm  Ixix.  2. 


Jcr.  i.  i-v.  31.]    JEREMIAH  AND  HIS  PROPHECIES         455 


pity  and  indignation.  He  found  him  sitting,  as  a  king 
should  do,  at  the  post  of  danger  in  the  gate  of  Benjamin  ; 
for  Zedekiah  was  not  a  physical,  though  he  was  amoral, 
coward.  Ebed-Melech  told  the  king  that  Jeremiah  was 
dying  of  starvation,  and  Zedekiah  bade  him  take  three  ^ 
men  with  him  and  rescue  the  dying- man.  The  faithful 
Ethiopian  hurried  to  a  cellar  under  the  treasury,  took 
with  him  some  old,  worn  fragments  of  robes,  and,  letting 
them  down  by  cords,  called  *to  Jeremiah  to  put  them 
under  his  arm-pits.  He  did  so,  and  they  drew  him 
up  into  the  light  of  day,  though  he  still  remained  in 
prison. 

It  seems  to  have  been  at  this  time  that,  in  spite  of 
his  grim  vaticination  of  immediate  retribution,  Jeremiah 
showed  his  serene  confidence  in  the  ultimate  future 
by  accepting  the  proposal  of  his  cousin  Hanameel  to 
buy  some  of  the  paternal  fields  at  Anathoth,  though  at 
that  very  moment  they  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Chal- 
daeans.  Such  an  act  publicly  performed  must  have 
caused  some  consolation  to  the  besieged,  just  as  did 
the  courage  of  the  Roman  senator  who  gave  a  good 
price  for  the  estate  outside  the  walls  of  Rome  on  which 
Hannibal  was  actually  encamped. 

Then  Zedekiah  once  more  secretly  sent  for  him,  and 
implored  him  to  tell  the  unvarnished  truth.  "  If  I  do," 
said  the  prophet,  **  will  you  not  kill  me  ?  and  will  you 
in  any  case  hearken  to  me  ?  "  Zedekiah  swore  not  to 
betray  him  to  his  enemies ;  and  Jeremiah  told  him  that, 
even  at  that  eleventh  hour,  if  he  would  go  out  and  make 
submission  to  the  Babylonians,  the  city  should  not  be 
burnt,  and  he  should  save  the  lives  of  himself  and  of 
his  family.     Zedekiah  believed  him,  but  pleaded  that 

'  Jer.  xxxviii.  10,  A.V.,  "  thirty." 


456  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


he  was  afraid  of  the  mockery  of  the  deserters  to  whom 
he  might  be  delivered.  Jeremiah  assured  him  that  he 
should  not  be  so  delivered,  and  that,  if  he  refused  to 
obe}',  nothing  remained  for  the  city,  and  for  him  and 
his  wives  and  children,  but  final  ruin.  The  king  was 
too  weak  to  follow  what  he  must  now  have  felt  to  be 
the  last  chance  which  God  had  opened  out  for  him. 
Me  could  only  "attain  to  half-believe."  He  entrusted 
the  result  to  chance,  with  miserable  vacillation  of  pur- 
pose ;  and  the  door  of  hope  was  closed  upon  him.  His 
one  desire  was  to  conceal  the  interview ;  and  if  it  came 
to  the  ears  of  the  princes — ^of  whom  he  was  shamefully 
afraid — he  begged  Jeremiah  to  say  that  he  had  only 
entreated  the  king  not  to  send  him  back  to  die  in 
Jonathan's  prison. 

As  he  had  suspected,  it  became  known  that  Jeremiah 
had  been  summoned  to  an  interview  with  the  king. 
They  questioned  the  prophet  in  prison.  He  told  them 
the  story  which  the  king  had  suggested  to  him,  and  the 
truth  remained  undiscovered.  For  this  deflection  from 
exact  truth  it  is  tolerably  certain  that,  in  the  state  of 
men's  consciences  upon  the  subject  of  veracity  in  those 
days,  the  prophet's  moral  sense  did  not  for  a  moment 
reproach  him.  He  remained  in  his  prison,  guarded 
probably  by  the  faithful  Ebed-Melech,  until  Jerusalem 
was  taken. 

Let.  us  pity  the  dreadful  plight  of  Zedekiah,  aggra- 
vated as  it  was  b}'  his  weak  temperament.  "  He 
stands  at  the  head  of  a  people  determined  to  defend 
itself,  but  is  himself  without  either  hope  or  courage."-' 

'  Van  Oort,  iv.  52. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

THE  FALL   OF  JERUSALEM 

B.C.  586 

2  Kings  xxv.   i — 21 

"In  that  day  will  I  make  Jerusalem  a  burdensome  stone  for  all 
nations." — Zech.  xii.  3. 

"An  end  is  come,  the  end  is  come;  it  awaketh  against  thee  :  behold 
the  end  is  come." — Ezek.  vii.  6. 

"  Behold  yon  sterile  spot 
Where  now  the  wandering  Arab's  tent 

Flaps  in  the  desert  blast ; 
There  once  old  Salem's  haughty  fane 
Reared  high  to  heaven  its  thousand  golden  domes, 
And  in  the  blushing  face  of  day 
Exposed  its  shameful  glory." 

bllELLEY. 

AFTER  the  siege  had  lasted  for  a  year  and  a  half, 
all  but  one  day,  at  midnight  the  besiegers  made 
a  breach  in  the  northern  city  wall.^  It  was  a  day  of 
terrible  remembrance,  and  throughout  the  exile  it  was 
observed  as  a  solemn  fast."'' 

Nebuchadrezzar  was  no  longer  in  person  before  the 


'  Jos.,  Antt.,  X.  viii,  2 ;  2  Chron.  xxxii.  5,  xxxiii.  14.  First  and 
last,  the  siege  seems  to  have  lasted  one  year,  five  months,  and  twenty- 
seven  days. 

-  Zech.  viii.  19. 

457 


45  8  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


walls.  He  had  other  war-like  operations  and  other 
sieges  on  hand — the  sieges  of  Tyre,  Asekah,  and 
Lachish — as  well  as  Jerusalem.  He  had  therefore 
established  his  headquarters  at  Lachish,  and  did  not 
superintend  the  final  operations  against  the  city.^  But 
now  that  all  had  become  practically  hopeless,  and  the  cap- 
ture of  the  rest  of  Jerusalem  was  only  a  matter  of  a  few 
days  more,  Zedekiah  and  his  few  best  surviving  princes 
and  soldiers  fled  by  night  through  the  opposite  quarter 
of  the  city.  There  was  a  little  unwatched  postern 
between  two  walls  near  the  king's  garden,  and  through 
this  he  and  his  escort  fled,  hoping  to  reach  the  Arabah, 
and  make  good  his  escape,  perhaps  to  the  Wady-el- 
Arish,  which  he  could  reach  in  five  hours,  through  the 
wilds  beyond  the  Jordan.'-  The  heads  of  the  king  and 
his  followers  were  muffled,  and  they  carried  on  their 
shoulders  their  choicest  possessions.^  But  he  was 
betrayed  by  some  of  the  mean  deserters,*  and  pursued 
by  the  Chaldaeans.  His  movements  were  doubtless 
impeded  by  the  presence  of  his  harem  and  his  children. 
I  lis  little  band  of  warriors  could  offer  no  resistance,  and 
fled  in  all  directions.  Zedekiah,  his  family,  and  his 
attendants  were  taken  prisoners,  and  carried  to  Riblah 

'  The  inscriptions  of  Nebuchadrezzar  which  have  been  as  yet 
deciphered  speak  ot  his  sumptuous  buildings  and  of  his  worship  of 
the  gods  rather  than  of  his  conquests.  See  Records  of  the  Past, 
vii.  69-78. 

-  Robinson,  Bibl.  Res.,  ii.  536.  Some  suppose  that  "  the  king's 
garden  "  was  near  the  mouth  of  the  Tyropoeon  Valley. 

^  Ezek.  xii.  12.  Perhaps  the  gate  alluded  to  is  the  fountain  gate  of 
Neh.  iii.  15.  Ezekiel  seems  to  speak  of  "digging  through  the  wall." 
Robinson  says  that  a  trace  of  the  outermost  wall  still  exists  in  the 
rude  pathway  which  crosses  the  mouth  of  the  Tyropoeon  on  a  mound 
hard  by  the  old  mulberry  tree  which  marks  the  traditional  site  of 
Isaiah's  martyrdom. 

■•  Joo.,  Anlt.,  X.  viii.  2. 


XXV.  t-2i.]  THE  FALL  OF  JERUSALEM  459 

to  appear  before  the  mighty  conqueror.^  Nebuchad- 
rezzar showed  no  pity  towards  one  whom  he  had 
elevated  to  the  throne,  and  who  had  violated  his  most 
solemn  assurances  by  intriguing  with  his  enemies. 
He  brought  him  to  trial,  and  doomed  him  to  witness 
with  his  own  eyes  the  massacre  ot  his  two  sons  and 
of  his  attendants.  After  he  had  endured  this  anguish, 
worse  than  death,  his  eyes  weVe  put  out,  and,  bound 
in  double  fetters,^  he  was  sent  to  Babylon,  where  he 
ended  his  miserable  days.  To  blind  a  king  deprived 
him  of  all  hope  of  recovering  the  throne,  and  was 
therefore  in  ancient  days  a  common  punishment.^ 
The  LXX.  adds  that  he  was  sent  by  the  Babylonians 
to  grind  a  mill — ftV  oIklov  ^iv\oivo<i.  This  is  probably 
a  reminiscence  of  the  blinded  Samson.  But  thus  were 
fulfilled  with  startling  literalness  two  prophecies  which 
might  well  have  seemed  to  be  contradictory.*  For 
Jeremiah  had  said  (xxxiv.  3), — 

"Thine  eyes  shall  behold  the  eyes  of  the  King  of 
Babylon,  and  he  shall  speak  with  thee  mouth  to  mouth, 
and  thou  shalt  go  to  Babylon." 

Whereas  Ezekiel  had  said  (xii.   13), — 

'  Traces  oi  his  presence  are  found  in  inscriptions  in  the  Wady  of 
Uic  Dog  near  BejTout,  and  in  Wady  Brissa.  Sec  Sayce,  Proceedings 
vf  the  Bibl.  Arch,  Soc.,  November  1881. 

-  2  Kings  XXV.  7.     See  Layard,  Nineveh,  ii.  376. 

'  The  blinding  was  sometimes  done  by  passing  a  red-hot  rod  of 
silver  or  brass  over  the  open  eyes ;  sometimes  by  plucking  out  the 
eyes  (Jer.  lii.  li,  Vulg.  oculos  emit;  2  Kings  xxv.  7,  effodit).  See  a 
hideous  illustration  of  a  yet  more  brutal  process  in  Botta  (Monum.  de 
Nineve,  PI.  cxviii.),  where  Sargon  with  his  own  hand  is  thrusting 
a  lance  into  the  eyes  of  a  captive  prince,  whose  head  is  kept  steady  by 
a  bridle  fastened  to  a  hook  through  his  lips.  See  also  Judg.  xvi.  21  ; 
Xen.,  Anab.,  i.  9,  §  13  ;  Procopius,  Bel.  Pers.,  i.  l;  Ammianus,  xxvii. 
12  ;  Rawlinson,  Ancient  Monarchies,  i.  307. 

*  Jos.,  Antl.,  X.  viii.  2,  3. 


46o  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

"  I  will  bring  him  to  Babylon,  the  land  of  the 
Chaldaeans ;  yet  shall  he  not  see  it,  though  he  shall 
die  there." 

Henceforth  Zedekiah  was  forgotten,  and  his  place 
knew  him  no  more.  We  can  only  hope  that  in  his 
blindness  and  solitude  he  was  happier  than  he  had  been 
on  the  throne  of  Judah,  and  that  before  death  came  to 
end  his  miseries  he  found  peace  with  God. 

The  conqueror  did  not  come  to  spoil  the  city.  He 
left  that  task  to  three  great  officers, — Nebuzaradan,  the 
captain  of  the  guard,  or  chief  executioner  ;  ^  Nebushas- 
ban,  the  Rabsaris,  or  chief  of  the  eunuchs  ;  and  Ner- 
galshareser,  the  Rabmag,  or  chief  of  the  magicians. 
They  took  their  station  by  the  Middle  Gate,  and  first 
gave  up  the  city  to  pillage  and  massacre.  No  horror 
was  spared."  The  sepulchres  were  rifled  for  treasure  ; 
the  young  Levites  were  slain  in  the  house  of  their 
Sanctuary  ;  women  were  violated ;  maidens  and  hoary- 
headed  men  were  slain.  "  Princes  were  hanged  up  by 
the  hand,  and  the  faces  of  elders  were  dishonoured ; 
priest  and  prophet  were  slain  in  the  Sanctuary  of  the 
Lord,"  ^  till  the  blood  flowed  like  red  wine  from  the 
winepress  over  the  desecrated  floor. ^     The  guilty  city 


•  Nebur-zir-iddina,  "Nebo  bestowed  seed."  Jer.  xxxix.  9,  13,  is  in 
some  way  corrupt.  Ezekiel  (ix.  2),  however,  and  Josephus  (^Antt.,  X. 
viii.  2)  mention  six  officers.  Nebuzaradan  was  "  chief  of  the  execu- 
tioners" (Gen.  xxxvii.  36;   l  Kings  ii.  25,  35,  46). 

-  Psalm  Ixxix.  2,  3. 

^2  Chron.  xxxvi.  17;  Lam.  ii.  21,  v.  11,  12. 

*  To  the  reminiscences  of  these  scenes  are  partly  due  the  Talmudic 
legend  about  the  blood  of  Zechariah,  the  son  of  Jehoiada,  bubbling  up 
to  demand  vengeance.  Nebudchadrezzar  slew  a  holocaust  of  human 
victims  to  appease  the  shade  of  the  wrathful  prophet,  until  the  king 
himself  was  terrified,  and  asked  if  he  wished  his  whole  people  to  be 
slaughtered.     Then  the  blood  ceased  to  bubble. 


XXV.  I-2I.]  THE  FALL   OF  JERUSALEM  461 

drank  at  the  hand  of  God  the  dregs  of  the  cup  of  His 
fury.^  It  was  the  final  vengeance.  "  The  punishment 
of  thine  iniquity  is  accomplished,  O  daughter  of  Zion. 
He  will  no  more  carry  thee  away  into  captivity."  ^ 
And,  meanwhile,  the  little  Bedouin  principalities  were 
full  of  savage  exultation  at  the  fate  of  their  hereditary 
foe.^  This  was  felt  by  the  Jews  as  a  culmination  of  their 
misery,  that  they  became  a  derision  to  their  enemies. 
The  callous  insults  hurled  at  them  by  the  neighbouring 
tribes  in  their  hour  of  shame  awoke  that  implac- 
able wrath  against  Gebal  and  Amnion  and  Amalek 
which  finds  its  echo  in  the  Prophets  and  in  the 
Psalms.* 

After  this  the  devoted  capital  was  given  up  to 
destruction.  The  Temple  was  plundered.  All  that 
remained  of  its  often-rifled  splendours  was  carried 
away,  such  as  the  ancient  pillars  Jachin  and  Boaz,  the 
masterpieces  of  Hiram's  art,  the  caldron,  the  brazen 
sea,  and  all  the  vessels  of  gold,  of  silver,  and  of  brass. 
Then  the  walls  of  the  city  were  dismantled  and  broken 
down.  The  Temple,  and  the  palace,  and  all  the  houses 
of  the  princes  were  committed  to  the  flames.  As  for 
the  principal  remaining  inhabitants,  Seraiah  the  chief 
priest,  perhaps  the  grandson  of  Hilkiah  and  the  grand- 
father of  Ezra,  Zephaniah  the  second  priest,  the  three 
Levitic  doorkeepers,  the  secretary  of  war,  five  of  the 
greatest  nobles  who  "  saw  the  king's  face," '"  and  sixty 
of  the  common  people  who  had  been  marked  out  for 
special  punishment,  were  taken  to  Riblah,   and   there 

'  See  Rawlinson,  Kings  of  Israel  and  Judah,  p.  236. 

*  Lam.  iv.  22. 

'  Psalm  Ixxix.  i, 

*  Obad.  14-16;  Psalm  cxxxvii.  7;  i  Esdras  iv.  45. 

*  Comp.  Esther  i.  14. 


462  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OE  KINGS 

massacred  by  order  of  Nebuchadrezzar.^  With  these 
Nebuchadrezzar  took  away  as  his  prisoners  a  multitude 
of  the  wealthier  inhabitants,  leaving  behind  him  but 
the  hinnblest  artisans.  As  the  craftsmen  and  smiths 
had  been  deported,^  these  poor  people  busied  themselves 
in  agriculture,  as  vine-dressers  and  husbandmen.  The 
existing  estates  were  divided  among  them  ;  and  being 
few  in  number,  they  found  the  amplest  sustenance  in 
treasures  of  wheat  and  barley,  and  oil  and  hone}',  and 
summer  fruits,  which  they  kept  concealed  for  safety, 
as  the  fellaheen  of  Palestine  do  to  this  day." 

According  to  the  historic  chapters  added  to  the 
prophecies  of  Jeremiah,  the  whole  number  of  captives 
carried  av/ay  from  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadrezzar  in 
the  seventh,  the  eighteenth,  and  the  twenty-third  years 
of  his  reign  were  4,600.^  The  completeness  of  the 
desolation  might  well  have  caused  the  heart-rending 
outcry  of  Psalm  Ixxix.  :  "  O  God,  the  heathen  are 
come  into  Thine  inheritance  ;  Thy  holy  Temple  have 
they  defiled  ;  they  have  made  Jerusalem  a  heap  of 
stones.  The  dead  bodies  of  Thy  servants  have  they 
given  to  be  meat  unto  the  fowls  of  heaven,  and  the 
flesh  of  Thy  saints  unto  the  beasts  of  the  land.  Their 
blood  have  they  shed  like  water  round  about  Jerusalem  ; 
and  there  was  no  man  to  bury  them." 

Among  the  remnant  of  the  people  was  Jeremiah. 
Nebuzaradan  had  received  from  his  king  the  strictest 


'  On  these  personages  see  i  Chron.  vi.  13,  14;  2  Kings  xxii.  4; 
Ezra  vii.  i  ;  Jer,  xxi.  I,  xxxvii.  3,  etc. 

"^  Nebuchadrezzar  had  no  doubt  needed  them  for  his  great  buildings 
at  Babylon,  and  their  deportation  would  render  more  difficult  any 
attempt  to  refortify  Jerusalem. 

^  Jer.  xli.  8,  xl.  12. 

*  Jer.  lii.  28-30.    In  his  seventh  3'ear,  3,023;  in  his  eighteenth,  832 
in  his  thirty-third,  745  =4,600, 


XXV.  1-21.]  THE   FALL   OF  JERUSALEM  463 

injunctions  to  treat  him  honourably ;  for  he  had  heard 
from  the  deserters  that  he  had  always  opposed  the 
rebellion,  and  had  prophesied  the  issue  of  the  siege. 
He  was  indeed  sent  in  manacles  to  Ramah  ;  ^  but  there 
Nebuchadrezzar  gave  him  free  choice  to  do  exactly  as 
he  liked — either  to  accompany  him  to  Babylon,  where 
he  should  be  well  treated  and  cared  for,  or  to  return  to 
Jerusalem,  and  live  where  he  liked.  This  was  his  desire. 
Nebuchadrezzar  therefore  dismissed  him  with  food  and 
a  present ;  -  and  he  returned.  The  LXX.  and  Vulgate 
represent  him  as  sitting  weeping  over  the  ruins  of 
Jerusalem,  and  tradition  says  that  he  sought  for  his 
lamentations  a  cave  still  existing  near  the  Damascus 
Gate.  Of  this  Scripture  knows  nothing.  But  the 
melancholy  prophet  was  only  reserved  for  further 
tragedies.  He  had  lived  one  of  the  most  afflicted  of 
human  lives.  A  man  of  tender  heart  and  shrinking 
disposition,  he  had  been  called  to  set  his  face  like  a  flint 
against  kings,  and  nobles,  and  mobs.  Worse  than  this, 
being  himself  a  prophet  and  priest,  naturally  led  to 
sympathise  with  both,  he  was  the  doomed  antagonist 
of  both — victim  of  **  one  of  the  strongest  of  human 
passions,  the  hatred  of  priests  against  a  priest  who 
attacks  his  own  order,  the  hatred  of  prophets  against 
a  prophet  who  ventures  to  have  a  voice  and  a  will  of  his 
own."  Even  his  own  family  had  plotted  against  his 
life  at  humble  Anathoth  ;  ^  and  when  he  retreated  to 
Jerusalem,  he  found  himself  at  the  centre  of  the  storm. 

'  Ramali  was  but  five  miles  from  Jerusalem,  and  at  first  Jeremiah 
may  not  have  been  identified  (Jer.  xl.  1-6). 

-  The  present,  if  accepted,  could  only  be  regarded,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, as  part  of  the  necessity  of  life.  It  does  not  fall  under 
the  head  of  the  presents  often  offered  to  prophets  (l  Sam.  ix.  7  ; 
2  Kings  iv.  42  ;  Mic.  iii.  5,  1 1 ;  Amos  vii.  12). 

^  Jer.  xi.  19-21,  xii.  6, 


464  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

Now  perhaps  he  hoped  for  a  gleam  of  sunset  peace. 
But  his  hopes  were  disappointed.  He  had  to  tread  the 
path  of  anguish  and  hatred  to  the  bitter  end,  as  he  had 
trodden  it  for  nearly  fifty  years  of  the  troubled  life 
which  had  followed  his  call  in  early  boyhood. 

"  But,  in  the  case  of  Jerusalem,"  says  Dean  Stanley, 
"  both  its  first  and  second  destruction  have  the  peculiar 
interest  of  involving  the  dissolution  of  a  religious  dis- 
pensation, combined  with  the  agony  of  an  expiring 
nation,  such  as  no  other  people  has  survived,  and,  by 
surviving,  carried  on  the  living  recollection,  first  of  one, 
and  then  of  the  other,  for  centuries  after  the  first  shock 
was  over."^ 

'  Stanley,  Lectures,  ii.  515. 


CHAPTER   XXXIX 

GEDALIAH 

B.C.    586 

2  Kings  xxv.  22 — 30 
"Vedi  che  son  un  clie  piango." — Dantv,  I it/criio. 

"  No,  rather  steel  thy  melting  heart 
To  act  the  martyr's  sternest  part, 
To  watch  with  firm,  unshrinking  eye 
Thy  darling  visions  as  they  die. 
Till  all  bright  hopes  and  hues  of  day 
Have  faded  into  twilight  grey." 

Keble. 

IN  deciding  that  he  would  not  accompany  Nebuchad- 
rezzar to  Babylon,  Jeremiah  made  the  choice  of 
duty.  In  Chaldaea  he  would  have  lived  at  ease,  in  plenty, 
in  security,  amid  universal  respect.  He  might  have 
helped  his  younger  contemporary  Ezekiel  in  his  struggle 
to  keep  the  exiles  in  Babylon  faithful  to  their  duty  and 
their  God.  He  regarded  the  exiles  as  representing  all 
that  was  best  and  noblest  in  the  nation ;  and  he  would 
have  been  safe  and  honoured  in  the  midst  of  them, 
under  the  immediate  protection  of  the  great  Babylonian 
king.  On  the  other  hand,  to  return  to  Judaea  was  to 
return  to  a  defenceless  and  a  distracted  people,  the 
mere  dregs  of  the  true  nation,  the  mere  phantom  of 
what  they  once  had  been.  Surely  his  life  had  earned 
the  blessing  of  repose  ?     But  no !     The  hopes  of  the 

465  30 


466  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

Chosen  People,  the  seed  of  Abraham,  God's  servant, 
could  not  be  dissevered  from  the  Holy  Land.  Rest 
was  not  for  him  on  this  side  of  the  grave.  His  only 
prayer  must  be,  like  that  which  Senancour  had  inscribed 
over  his  grave,  "  Eternite,  deviens  mon  asile ! "  The 
decision  cost  him  a  terrible  struggle ;  but  duty  called 
him,  and  he  obeyed.  It  has  been  supposed  by  some 
critics^  that  the  wild  cry  of  Jer.  xv.  10-21  expresses 
his  anguish  at  the  necessity  of  casting  in  his  lot  with 
the  remnant ;  the  sense  that  they  needed  his  protecting 
influence  and  prophetic  guidance ;  and  the  promise  of 
God  that  his  sacrifice  should  not  be  ineffectual  for  good 
to  the  miserable  fragment  of  his  nation,  even  though 
they  should  continue  to  struggle  against  him. 

So  with  breaking  heart  he  saw  Nebuzaradan  at 
Ramah  marshalling  the  throng  of  captives  for  their 
long  journey  to  the  waters  of  Babylon.  Before  them, 
and  before  the  little  band  which  returned  with  him  to 
the  burnt  Temple,  the  dismantled  city,  the  desolate 
house,  there  lay  an  unknown  future ;  but  in  spite  of 
the  exiles'  doom  it  looked  brighter  for  them  than  for 
him,  as  with  tears  and  sobs  they  parted  from  each 
other.     Then  it  was  that — 

"A  voice  was  heard  in  Ramah,  lamentation,  and 
bitter  weeping ;  Rachel  weeping  for  her  children  refuseth 
to  be  comforted,  because  they  are  not.  Thus  saith  the 
Lord,  '  Refrain  thy  voice  from  weeping,  and  thine  eyes 
from  tears  :  for  thy  work  shall  be  rewarded,'  saith  the 
Lord ;  '  and  they  shall  come  again  from  the  land  of 
the  enemy.  And  there  is  hope  for  thy  time  to  come,' 
saith  the  Lord,  'that  thy  children  shall  come  again  to 
their  own  border.'"^ 


'  So  Gratz  and  Cheyne.  '•'  Jer.  xxxi.  15-17. 


XXV.  22-26.]  GEDALIAIl  467 

Disappointed  in  the  fidelity  of  the  royal  house  of 
Jiidah,  Nebuchadrezzar  had  not  attempted  to  place 
another  of  them  on  the  throne.  He  appointed  Gedaliah, 
the  son  of  Ahikam,  the  son  of  Shaphan,  his  satrap 
(J)akid)  over  the  poor  remnant  who  were  left  in  the 
land.  In  this  appointment  we  piobably  trace  the  in- 
fluence of  Jeremiah,  There  is  no  one  whom  Nebu- 
chadrezzar would  have  been  so  likely  to  consult. 
Gedaliah  was  the  son  of  the  prophet's  old  protector/ 
and  his  grandfather  Shaphan  had  been  a  trusted  minister 
of  Josiah.  He  thoroughly  justified  the  confidence  re- 
posed in  him,  and  under  his  wise  and  prosperous  rule 
there  seemed  to  be  every  prospect  that  there  would 
be  at  least  some  pale  gleam  of  returning  prosperity. 
The  Jews,  who  during  the  period  of  the  siege  had  fled 
into  all  the  neighbouring  countries,  no  sooner  heard 
of  his  viceroyalty  than  they  came  flocking  back  from 
Moab,  and  Amnion,  and  Edom.  They  found  them- 
selves, perhaps  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  in 
possession  of  large  estates,  from  which  the  exiles  of 
Babylon  had  been  dispossessed ;  and  favoured  by  an 
abundant  harvest,  "they  gathered  wine  and  summer 
fruits  very  much."- 

Jerusalem — dismantled,  defenceless,  burnt — was  no 
longer  habitable.  It  was  all  but  deserted,  so  that 
jackals  and  hyaenas  prowled  even  over  the  mountain 
of  the  Lord's  House.  All  attempt  to  refortify  it  would 
have  been  regarded  as  rebellion,  and  such  a  mere 
"  lodge  in  a  garden  of  cucumbers  "  would  have  been  use- 
less to  repress  the  marauding  incursions  of  the  envious 
Moabites  and  Edomites,  who  had  looked  on  with  shouts 
at   the  destruction  of  the   city,  and  exulted  when  her 

'  Jer.  xxvi.  24.  ■''  Jer.  xl.  12. 


468  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


carved  work  was  broken  down  with  axes  and  hammers. 
Gedaliah  therefore  fixed  his  headquarters  at  Mizpah, 
about  six  miles  north  of  Jerusalem,  of  which  the  lofty 
eminence  could  be  easily  secured.^  It  was  the  watch- 
tower  from  which  Titus  .caught  his  first  glimpses  of 
the  Holy  City,  as  many  a  traveller  does  to  this  day, 
and  the  point  at  which  Richard  I.  averted  his  eyes 
with  tears,  saying  that  he  was  unworthy  to  look  upon 
tlie  city  which  he  was  unable  to  save.  Here,  then, 
Gedaliah  lived,  urging  upon  his  subjects  the  policy 
which  his  friend  and  adviser  Jeremiah  had  always 
supported,  and  promising  them  quietness  and  peace 
if  they  would  but  accept  the  logic  of  circumstances — 
if  they  would  bow  to  the  inevitable,  and  frankly 
acknowledge  the  suzerainty  of  Nebuchadrezzar.  It 
was  perhaps  as  a  pledge  of  more  independence  in 
better  days  to  come  that  Nebuzaradan  had  left  Gedaliah 
in  charge  of  the  young  daughters  of  King  Zedekiah, 
who  had  with  them  some  of  their  eunuch-attendants. 
As  that  unfortunate  monarch  was  only  thirty-two  years 
old  when  he  was  blinded  and  carried  away,  the 
princesses  were  probably  young  girls ;  and  it  has  been 
conjectured  that  it  was  part  of  the  Chaldaean  king's 
plan  for  the  future  that  in  time  Gedaliah  should  be 
permitted  to  marry  one  of  them,  and  re-establish  at 
least  a  collateral  branch  of  the  old  royal  hou.sc  of 
David. 

How  long  this  respite  continued  we  do  not  know. 
The  language  of  Jeremiah  xxxix  2,  xli.  i,  compared 
with  2  Kings  xxv.  8,  might  seem  to  imply  that  it  only 
lasted  two  months.  But  since  Jeremiah  does  not 
mention    the   year   in  xli.   i,    and   as   there  seems   to 


'  Some  identify  it  with  Sliaphat,  a  mile  from  Jerusalem 


XXV.  22-26.]  GEDALIAH  469 


have  been  yet  another  deportation  of  Jews  b}'  Nebu- 
chadrezzar five  years  latter  (Jer.  Hi.  30),  which  may 
have  been  in  revenge  for  the  murder  of  his  satrap, 
some  have  supposed  that  Gedaliah's  rule  lasted  four 
years.  All  is  uncertain,  and  tlie  latter  passage  is  of 
doubtful  authenticity  ;  but  it  ia  at  least  possible  that  the 
vengeful  atrocity  committed  by  Ishmael  followed  almosf 
immediately  after  the  Chaldaean  forces  were  well  out 
of  sight.  Respecting  these  last  days  of  Jewish  independ- 
ence, "  History,  leaning  semisomnous  on  her  p3a-amid, 
muttereth  something,  but  v/e  know  not  what  it  is." 

However  this  may  be,  there  seem  to  have  been 
guerilla  bands  wandering  through  the  country,  partly 
to  get  what  they  could,  and  partly  to  watch  against 
Bedouin  marauders.  Johanan,  the  son  of  Kareah,  who 
was  one  of  the  chief  captains  among  them,^  came  with 
others  to  Gedaliah,  and  warned  him  that  Baalis,  King 
of  Ammon,  was  intriguing  against  him,  and  trying  to 
induce  a  certain  Ishmael,  the  son  of  Nethaniah,  the 
son  of  Elishama — who,  in  some  way  unknown  to  us, 
represented,  perhaps  on  the  female  side,  the  seed 
royal  ^ — to  come  and  murder  him.  Gedaliah  was  of 
a  fine,  unsuspicious  temperament,  and  with  rash 
generosity  he  refused  to  believe  in  the  existence  of 
a  plot  so  ruinous  and  so  useless.  Astonished  at  his 
noble  incredulity,  Johanan  then  had  a  secret  interview 
with  him,  and  offered  to  murder  Ishmael  so  secretly 
that  no  one  should  know  of  it.  **  Why,"  he  asked, 
*'  should  this  man  be  suffered  to  ruin  everything,  and 

'  They  are  called  sari  ("princes"). 

*  There  is  no  Elishama  in  the  royal  genealogj',  except  a  son  of 
David.  Ishmael  may  have  been  the  son  or  grandson  of  some 
Ammonite  piincess.  An  Elishama  was  scribe  of.  Jehoiakim  (Jer. 
xxxvi.  12). 


<\^o  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


cause  the  final  scattering  of  even  the  struggling  hand- 
ful of  colonists  at  Mizpah  and  in  Judah  ?  "  Gedaliah 
forbad  his  intervention.  **  Thou  shalt  not  do  this,"  he 
said  :  "  thou  speakest  falsely  of  Ishmael." 

But  Johanan's  story  was  only  too  true.  Shortly 
afterwards,  Ishmael,  with  ten  confederates,^  came  to 
visit  Gedaliah  at  Mizpah,  perhaps  on  the  pretext  of 
seeing  his  kinswomen,  the  daughters  of  Zedekiah. 
Gedaliah  welcomed  this  ambitious  villain  and  his 
murderous  accomplices  with  open-handed  hospitality'. 
He  invited  them  all  to  a  banquet  in  the  fort  of  Mizpah ; 
and  after  eating  salt  with  him,  Ishmael  and  his  bravoes 
first  murdered  him,  and  then  put  promiscuously  to  the 
sword  his  soldiers,  and  the  Chaldaeans  who  had  been 
left  to  look  after  him.^  The  gates  of  the  fort  were 
closed,  and  the  bodies  were  flung  into  a  deep  well  or 
tank,"  which  had  been  constructed  by  Asa  in  the  middle 
of  the  courtyard,  when  he  was  fortifying  Mizpah  against 
the  attacks  of  Baasha,  King  of  Israel. 

For  two  days  there  was  an  unbroken  silence,  and 
the  peasants  at  Mizpah  remained  unaware  of  the 
dreadful  tragedy.  On  the  third  day  a  sad  procession 
was  seen  wending  its  way  up  the  heights.  There  were 
scattered  Jews  in  Shiloh  and  Samaria  who  still  remem- 
bered Zion  ;  and  eighty  pilgrims,  weeping  as  they  went, 
came  with  shaven  beards  and  rent  garments  to  bring 
a  minchah  and  incense  to  the  ruined  shrine  at  Jerusalem. 
In  the  depth  of  their  woe  they  had  even  violated  a  law 
(Lev.  xix.   28,  xxi.   5),   of  which  they  were  perhaps 

'  The  Hebrew  text  calls  these  ten  ruffians  rabb'i  hammelech,  "  chief 
officers  of  the  king"  of  Ammon. 

^  Josephus  records  or  conjectures  that  the  governor  w.ns  over- 
powered by  wine,  and  had  sunk  into  slumber  {Anit.,  X.  ix.  2). 

'  In  Jer.  xli.  9,  for  "because  of  Gedaliah,"  the  better  reading  is 
"  was  a  great  pit  "  (LXX,,  (f>piap  i-Uya), 


XXV.  22-26.]  GEDALIAH  471 


unaware,  by  cutting  themselves  in  sign  of  their  misery. 
Mizpah  would  be  their  last  halting-place  on  the  way  to 
Jerusalem ;  and  the  hypocrite  Ishmael  came  out  to  them 
with  an  invitation  to  share  the  hospitality  of  the  mur- 
dered satrap.  No  sooner  had  the  gate  of  the  charnel- 
house  closed  upon  them/  than  Ishmael  and  his  ten 
ruffians  began  to  murder  this  unoffending  company. 
Crimes  more  aimless  and  more  brutal  than  those  com- 
mitted by  this  infinitely  defgenerate  scion  of  the  royal 
house  it  is  impossible  to  conceive.  The  place  swam 
with  blood.  The  story  "  reads  almost  like  a  page  from 
the  annals  of  the  Indian  Mutiny."  Seventy  of  the 
wretched  pilgrims  had  been  butchered  and  flung  into 
the  tank,  which  must  have  been  choked  with  corpses, 
like  the  fatal  well  at  Cawnpore,^  when  the  ten  survivors 
pleaded  for  their  lives  by  telling  Ishmael  that  they  had 
large  treasures  of  country  produce  stored  in  hidden 
places,  which  should  be  at  his  disposal  if  he  would 
spare  them." 

As  it  was  useless  to  make  any  further  attempt  to 
conceal  his  atrocities,  Ishmael  now  took  the  3'oung 
princesses  and  the  inhabitants  of  Mizpah  with  him, 
and  tried  to  make  good  his  escape  to  his  patron  the 
King  of  Ammon.  But  the  watchful  eye  of  Johanan, 
the  son  of  Kareah,  had  been  upon  him,  and  assembling 
his  band  he  went  in  swift  pursuit.  Ishmael  had  got 
no  farther  than  the   Pool   of  Gibeon,   when  Johanan 


'  Ishmael— a  man-el  of  craft  and  villainy — put  into  practice  the 
same  stratagem  which  on  a  larger  scale  was  emploj'ed  by  Mohammed 
All  in  his  massacre  of  the  Mamelukes  at  Cairo  in  1806  (Grove,  s.v 
Bibl.  Diet.).  For  "the  midst  of  the  city"  (Jer.  xli.  7),  we  ought  to 
read  "  courtj'ard,"  as  in  Josephus. 

-'  Comp.  Jehu's  treatment  of  the  family  of  Ahaziah  (2  Kings  x.  14). 

^  The  dark  deed  is  still  commemorated  by  a  Jewish  fast,  as  in  the 
daj's  of  Zechariah  (Zech.  vii.  3-5,  viii.  19). 


472  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

overtook  him,  to  the  intense  joy  of  the  prisoners.  A 
scuffle  ensued ;  but  Ishniael  and  eight  of  his  blood- 
stained desperadoes  unhappily  managed  to  make  good 
their  escape  to  the  Ammonites.  The  wretch  vanishes 
into  the  darkness,  and  we  hear  of  him  no  more. 

Even  now  the  circumstances  were  desperate.  Nebu- 
chadrezzar could  not  in  honour  overlook  the  frustration 
■oi  all  his  plans,  and  the  murder,  not  only  of  his  viceroy, 
but  even  of  his  Chaldsean  commissioners.  He  would 
not  be  likely  to  accept  any  excuses.  No  course  seemed 
open  but  that  of  flight.  There  was  no  temptation  to 
return  to  Mizpah  with  its  frightful  memories  and  its 
corpse-choked  tank.  From  Gibeon  the  survivors  made 
their  way  to  Bethlehem,  which  lay  on  the  road  to 
Egypt,  and  where  they  could  be  sheltered  in  the 
caravanserai  of  Chimham.  Many  Jews  had  already 
taken  refuge  in  Egypt.  Colonies  of  them  were  living 
in  Pathros,  and  at  Migdol  and  Noph,  under  the  kindly 
protection  of  Pharaoh  Hophrah.  Would  it  not  be  well 
to  join  them  ? 

In  utter  perplexity  Johanan  and  the  other  captains 
and  all  the  people  came  to  Jeremiah.  How  he  had 
escaped  the  massacre  at  Mizpah  we  do  not  know ;  but 
now  he  seemed  to  be  the  only  man  left  in  whose  pro- 
phetic guidance  they  could  confide.  They  entreated 
him  with  pathetic  earnestness  to  show  them  the  will 
of  Jehovah ;  and  he  promised  to  pray  for  insight,  while 
they  pledged  themselves  to  obey  implicitly  his  direc- 
tions. 

The  anguish  and  vacillation  of  the  prophet's  mind  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  for  ten  whole  days  no  light 
came  to  him.  It  seemed  as  if  Judah  was  under  an 
irrevocable  curse.  Whither  could  they  return  ?  What 
temptation  was  there  to  return  ?     Did  not  return  mean 


XXV.  22-26.]  G  ED  A  LI  AH  473 

fresh  intolerable  miseries  ?  Would  they  not  be  torn 
to  pieces  by  the  robber  bands  from  across  the  Jordan  ? 
And  what  could  be  the  end  of  it  but  another  deporta- 
tion to  Babylon,  with  perhaps  further  massacre  and 
starvation  ? 

All  the  arguments  seemed  against  this  course ;  and 
he  could  see  very  clearly  that  it  would  be  against  all 
the  vv'ishes  of  the  down-trodden  fugitives,  who  longed 
for  Egypt,  "  where  we  shall  see  no  war,  nor  hear  the 
sound  of  the  trumpet,  nor  have  hunger  of  bread." 

Yet  Jeremiah  could  only  give  them  the  message 
which  he  believed  to  represent  the  will  of  God.  He 
bade  them  return.  He  assured  them  that  they  need 
have  no  fear  of  the  King  of  Babylon,  and  that  God 
would  bless  them  ;  whereas  if  they  went  to  Egypt,  they 
would  die  by  the  sword,  the  famine,  and  the  pestilence. 
At  the  same  time — doomed  always  to  thwart  the  hopes 
of  the  multitude — he  reproved  the  hypocrisy  which  had 
sent  them  to  ask  God's  will  when  they  never  intended 
to  do  anything  but  follow  their  own. 

Then  their  anger  broke  out  against  him.  He  was, 
as  always,  the  prophet  of  evil,  and  they  held  him  more 
than  half  responsible  for  being  the  cause  of  the  ruin 
which  he  invariably  predicted.  Johanan  and  "  all  the 
proud  men  "  (zedim)  gave  him  the  lie.  They  told  him 
that  the  source  of  his  prophesy  was  not  Jehovah,  but 
the  meddling  and  pernicious  Baruch.  Perhaps  some 
of  them  may  have  remembered  the  words  of  Isaiah, 
that  a  day  shoufd  come  when  five  cities,  of  which  one 
should  be  called  Kir-Cheres  ("  the  City  of  Destruction  ") 
— a  play  on  the  name  Kir-Heres,  **the  City  of  the  Sun," 
On  or  Heliopolis — should  speak  the  language  of  Canaan 
and  swear  by  the  Lord  of  hosts,  and  there  should  be 
an  altar  in  the  land  of  Egypt  and  a  matstsebah  at  its 


474  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

border  in  witness  to  Jehovah,  and  that  though  Egypt 
should  be  smitten  she  should  also  be  healed.* 

So  they  settled  to  go  to  Egypt ;  and  taking  with  them 
Jeremiah,  and  Baruch,  and  the  king's  daughters,  and 
all  tlie  remnant,  they  made  their  way  to  Tahpanhes  or 
Daphne,-  an  advanced  post  to  guard  the  road  to  Syria. 
Mr,  Flinders  Petrie  in  1886  discovered  the  .site  of  the 
city  at  Tel  Defenneh,  and  the  ruins  of  the  very  palace 
which  Pharaoh  Hophrah  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
daughters  of  his  ally  Zedekiah.  It  is  still  known  b}' 
the  name  of  "The  Castle  of  the  Jew's  Daughters" — 
EI  Kasr  el  Bint  el  Jehudi? 

In  front  of  this  palace  was  an  elevated  platform 
(nmstabd)  of  brick,  which  still  remains.  In  this  brick- 
work Jeremiah  was  bidden  by  the  word  of  Jehovah  to 
place  great  stones,  and  to  declare  that  on  that  very  plat- 
form, over  those  very  stones,  Nebuchadrezzar  should 
pitch  his  royal  tent,  when  he  came  to  wrap  himself  in  the 
land  of  Egypt,  as  a  shepherd  wraps  himself  in  his  gar- 
ment, and  to  burn  the  pillars  of  Heliopolis  with  fire.* 

Jeremiah  still  had  to  face  stormy  times.  At  some 
great  festival  assembly  at  Tahpanhes  he  bitterly  re- 
proached the  exiled  Jews  for  their  idolatries.  He  was 
extremely  indignant  with  the  women  who  burned  incense 
to  the  Queen  of  Heaven.  The  multitude,  and  especially 
the  women,  openly  defied  him.     "  We  will  not  hearken 

'  Isa.  xix.  18-22. 

^  Jer.  ii.  16,  xliv.  1 ;  Ezek,  xxx.  i8 ;  Jer.  xliii.  7,  xlvi.  14 ;  Herod.,  ii.  30. 

^  Fl.  Petrie,  Memoir  on  Tarn's  (Egj'pt.  Explor.  Fund,  4th  memoir), 
1888. 

*  Jer.  xliii.  13,  Beth-shcmesh.  Only  one  pillar  of  the  Temple  of 
the  Sun  is  now  standing.  It  is  said  to  be  four  thousand  }'ears  old. 
It  is  certain  that  Nebuchadrezzar  invaded  Egj'pt  and  defeated  Amasis, 
the  son  of  Hophrah,  B.C.  565,  reducing  Egj'pt  to  "  the  basest  of 
kingdoms"  (Fzek.  xxix.  14,  \$).  Three  of  Nebuchadrezzar's  terra- 
cotta cylinders  have  been  found  at  Tahpanhes. 


XXV.  22-26.]  GEDALIAH  475 

to  thee,"  they  said.  "  We  will  continue  to  burn  incense, 
and  offer  offerings  to  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  as  we  have 
done,  we,  and  our  fathers,  our  kings,  and  our  princes,  in 
the  cities  of  Judah,  and  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  ;  for 
then  had  we  plenty  of  victuals,  and  were  well,  and  saw 
no  evil.  It  is  only  since  we  have  left  off  making  cakes 
for  her  and  honouring  her  that  we  have  suffered  hunger 
and  desolation  ;  and  our  husbands  were  always  well 
aware  of  our  proceedings," 

Never  was  there  a  more  defiantly  ostentatious  revolt 
against  God  and  against  His  prophet !  Remonstrance 
seemed  hopeless.  What  could  Jeremiah  do  but  menace 
them  with  the  wrath  of  Heaven,  and  tell  them  that  in 
sign  of  the  truth  of  his  words  the  fate  of  Pharaoh 
Hophrah  should  be  the  same  as  the  fate  of  Zedekiah, 
King  of  Judah,  and  should  be  inflicted  by  the  hand 
of  Nebuchadrezzar.^ 

So  on  the  colony  of  fugitives  the  curtain  of  revelation 
rushes  down  in  storm.  The  prophet  went  on  the 
troubled  path  which,  if  tradition  be  true,  led  him  at 
last  to  martyrdom.  He  is  said  to  have  been  stoned 
by  his  infuriated  fellow-exiles.  But  his  name  lived 
in  the  memory  of  his  people.  It  was  he  (they  believed) 
who  had  hidden  from  the  Chaldaeans  the  Ark  and  the 
sacred  fire,  and  some  day  he  should  return  to  reveal 
the  place  of  their  concealment.^  When  Christ  asked 
His  disciples  six  hundred  years  later,  "  Whom  say  the 
people  that  I  am  ?  "  one  of  the  answers  was,  "  Some 
say  Jeremiah  or  one  of  the  prophets."     He  became,  so 

'  How  far  the  prophecy  was  fulfilled  wfe  do  not  know.  Ass3'rian 
and  Egyptian  fragments  of  record  show  that  in  the  thirty-seventh  year 
of  his  reign  Nebuchadrezzar  invaded  Egj'pt  and  advanced  to  S3'ene 
(Fzek.  xxix.  10). 

'-'  2  Mace.  ii.  1-8;  comp.  xv.  13-16.  The  tradition  is  singular  when 
we  recall  the  small  store  which  Jeremiah  set  by  the  Ark  (Jer.  iii.  16). 


476  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


to  speak,  the  guardian  saint  of  the  land  in  which  he  had 
sufifered  such  cruel  persecutions. 

But  the  historian  of  the  Kings  does  not  hke  to  leave 
the  close  of  his  story  in  unbroken  gloom.  He  wrote 
during  the  Exile.  He  has  narrated  with  tears  the  sad 
fate  of  Jehoiachin ;  and  though  he  does  not  care  to 
dwell  on  the  Exile  itself,  he  is  glad  to  narrate  one  touch 
of  kindness  on  the  part  of  the  King  of  Babylon,  which 
he  doubtless  regarded  as  a  pledge  of  mercies  yet  to 
come.  Twenty-six  years  had  elapsed  since  the  capture 
of  Jerusalem,  and  thirty-seven  since  the  captivity 
of  the  exiled  king,  when  Evil-Merodach,  the  son 
and  successor  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  took  pity  on  the 
imprisoned  heir  of  the  House  of  David.^  He  took 
Jehoiachin  from  his  dungeon,  changed  his  garments, 
spoke  words  of  encouragement  to  him,  gave  him  a  place 
at  his  own  table,'  assigned  to  him  a  regular  allowance 
from  his  own  banquet,^  and  set  his  throne  above  the 
throne  of  all  the  other  captive  kings  who  were  with  him 
in  Babylon.  It  might  seem  a  trivial  act  of  mercy,  yet 
the  Jews  remembered  in  their  records  the  very  day 
of  the  month  on  which  it  had  taken  place,  because  they 
regarded  it  as  a  break  in  the  clouds  which  overshadowed 
them — as  "  the  first  gleam  of  heaven's  amber  in  the 
Eastern  grey." 


'  Evil-Merodach  (Avil-Mardiik,  "Man  of  Merodach  ")  only  reigned 
two  years,  and  was  then  murdered  by  his  brother-in-law  Neriglissar 
(Berosus  ap.  Jos. :  comp.  Ap.,  i.  20).  The  Rabbis  have  a  story— perhaps 
founded  on  that  of  Gains  and  Agrippa  I. — that  Evil-Merodach  had  been 
imprisoned  by  his  father  for  wishing  his  death,  and  in  prison  formed 
a  friendship  for  Jehoiachin. 

^  "Lifted  up  his  head."     Comp.  Gen.  xl.  13,  20. 

'  To  be  thus  o/moTpdire^o^,  or  cruffjiTos,  of  the  king  was  a  high  honour 
(Herod.,  iii.  13,  v.  24.     Comp.  Judg.  i.  7  ;  2  Sam.  ix.  13,  etc.). 


EPILOGUE 

"  On  Jordan's  banks  the  Arab's  camels  stray, 
On  Zion's  hills  the  False  One's  votaries  pray, 
1  he  Baal-adorer  bows  on  Sinai's  steep  ; 
Yet  there — e'en  there — O  God,  Thy  thunders  sleep." 

Byron. 

"God,  Thou  art  Love:  I  build  my  faith  on  that." 

Browning. 

BEFORE  concluding  I  should  like  to  add  a  few 
words  (i)  on  what  some  may  regard  as  the  too 
favourable  attitude  towards  what  is  called  the  "  Higher 
Criticism  "  adopted  in  this  book  ;  and  (2)  on  the  deep, 
essential,  eternal  lessons  which  we  have  found  in 
chapter  after  chapter  of  it. 

I .  As  regards  the  first,  I  need  only  say  that  the  one 
thing  I  seek,  the  sole  thing  I  care  for,  is  Truth, — truth, 
not  tradition.  Even  St.  Cyprian,  devoted  as  he  was 
to  custom  and  tradition,  warns  us  that  "  Custom  with- 
out Truth  is  only  antiquated  error,"  and  that  what  we 
believe  must  be  established  by  reason,  not  prescribed 
by  tradition. 

And  it  cannot  be  laid  down  too  clearly  that  the  old 
view  of  Inspiration — which  defined  it  as  consisting  in 
verbal  dictation,  which  made  the  sacred  writers  "  not 
only   the  penmen    but   the  pens  of  the  Holy  Spirit," 

477 


478  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


and  which  spoke  of  every  sentence,  word,  syllable, 
and  every  letter  of  Scripture  as  Divine  and  infallible — 
was  a  dangerous  and  absolute  falsity,  and  that  any 
attempt  in  these  days  to  enforce  it  as  binding  on  the 
intellect  and  conscience  of  mankind  could  only  lead 
to  the  utter  shipwreck  of  all  sincere  and  reasonable 
religion.  "Not  needlessly,"  says  the  learned  author  of 
Italy  and  her  Invaders — himself  an  able  opponent  of 
many  modern  conclusions  on  the  subject — "should  I 
wish  to  shake  even  that  faith  which  practically  believes 
that  the  whole  Bible,  exactly  in  its  present  shape,  yes, 
almost  the  English  Bible  just  as  we  have  it,  came 
straight  down  from  heaven.  But  we  do  want  to  get 
away  from  all  mere  theories  as  to  the  way  in  which 
God  might  have  revealed  Himself,  and  to  learn  as 
much  as  we  can  of  the  way  in  which  He  has  re- 
vealed Himself  in  actual  fact,  and  in  real  human 
lives."  1 

To  do  this  has  been  one  of  my  objects  in  this 
volume,  and  in  the  preceding  volume  on  the  First 
Book  of  Kings. 

2.  We  have  now  only  to  cast  one  last  glance  on 
this  book,  and  on  the  lessons  which  it  is  meant  to 
teach. 

Consider,  first,  its  deep  and  varied  interest.  It  has 
the  combined  value  of  History  and  of  Biography ; 
and,  in  dealing  with  both,  its  aim  is  to  pass  over  all 
minor  and  earthly  details,  and  to  show  the  method 
of  God's  dealings  both  with  nations  and  with  the 
individual  soul. 

If  we  look  at  the  book  only  as  a  History,  it 
shows  us  in  the  briefest  possible  compass  a  series  of 


'  T.  Hodgkin,  Friends'  Quarterly,  September  1893,  p.  401. 


EPILOGUE  479 

national  events  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  annals 
of  mankind.  We  become  witnesses  of  the  fierce 
occasional  struggles  between  Israel  and  Judah,  and 
of  the  constant  warfare  of  both  with  those  wild  sur- 
rounding nations — the  people  of  Moab,  and  of  Edom, 
Gebal,  and  Ammon,  and  Amalek,  the  Philistines  also, 
and  them  that  dwell  at  Tyre.  We  watch  the  indomit- 
able resistance  of  Tyre  to  Assyria  and  Babylon.  We 
see  the  Northern  Kingdom  of  Israel  rise  into  wealth, 
power,  and  luxury,  only  to  sink  into  deep  moral  corrup- 
tion, until,  at  last,  the  patience  of  God  is  exhausted, 
and  He  obliterates  its  very  existence  in  an  appa- 
rently final  and  irremediable  overthrow.  We  witness 
the  rise,  culmination,  and  fall  of  Syria ;  the  culmina- 
tion and  the  crashing  overthrow  of  Nineveh ;  the  rise 
and  the  splendour  of  Babylon.  We  see  the  surging 
tide  of  the  nomad  Scythians  and  Cimmerians  rise  into 
flood  and  ebb  away  with  spent  and  shallow  waves. 
We  see  the  petty  fortress  of  Zion  triumph  in  its 
defiance  of  the  mighty  hosts  of  Sennacherib  because 
it  is  strong  in  reliance  upon  God,  and  we  see  it  grow 
faithless  to  God  until  it  succumbs  to  the  captains  of 
Nebuchadrezzar.  Again  and  again  we  observe  that  the 
Almighty  stills  the  raging  of  the  sea,  the  noise  of  his 
waves,  and  the  madness  of  the  people. 

The  conviction  is  borne  upon  our  soul  with  over- 
whelming power,  as  we  read  the  pages  of  Amos,  of 
Isaiah,  and  of  Jeremiah,  that,  in  spite  of  all  their  rage 
and  tumult,  and  apparently  irresistible  dominance,  God 
still  sitteth  above  the  water-floods,  and  God  remaineth 
a  King  for  ever. 

Side  by  side  with  this  spectacle  of  the  dealing  of 
God  with  nations,  in  which  we  see  written  in  large 
letters,  in  characters  of  blood  and  of  fire,  His  dealing  with 


48o  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


guilty  nations,  we  have  abundantly  in  these  "chapters 
the  narrower  yet  more  intense  interest  which  arises 
from  the  contemplation  of  human  nature — one  and  the 
same  in  its  general  elements,  but  infinitely  varied  in 
its  conditions — in  the  lives  of  individual  men.  It  is 
revealed  to  us  as  in  a  picture — it  is  brought  home  to 
us,  not  by  didactic  inferences,  but  with  the  silent  con- 
viction which  springs  from  the  evidence  of  facts — that 
wealth  is  nothing,  and  rank  nothing,  and  power  nothing, 
but  that  the  only  thing  of  essential  importance  in 
human  lives  is  whether  a  man  does  that  which  is  good 
or  that  which  is  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord.  Good 
kings  and  bad  kings  pass  before  us ;  and  though  the 
best  kings,  like  Hezekiah  and  Josiah,  were  no  more 
free  from  earthly  misfortune  than  are  any  of  the  saints 
of  God — though  Hezekiah  had  to  suffer  anguish  and 
humiliation,  and  Josiah  died  in  defeat  on  the  battle-field, 
— yet  we  are  irresistibly  led  to  the  belief :  "  Say  ye 
of  the  righteous  that  it  shall  be  well  with  him  ;  for 
they  shall  eat  the  fruit  of  their  doings.  Woe  unto  the 
wicked  I  It  shall  be  ill  with  him ;  for  the  work  of  his 
hands  shall  be  done  to  him." 

We  all  have  a  guide  in  life.  "We  are  not  left  to 
steer  our  course  even  by  the  stars,  which  the  clouds 
of  earth  may  dim.  The  ship  has  something  on  board 
which  points  towards  the  spiritual  pole  of  the  universe. 
I  will  not  venture  to  call  it  an  infallible  guide.  It 
wavers  with  tremulous  sensitiveness ;  it  may  be  de- 
flected by  disturbing  influences ;  but  still  in  the  main 
it  points  with  mysterious  fidelity  towards  the  pole  of 
our  spirits,  even  God.  And  what  is  this  compass 
which  we  have  for  our  guidance  ?  Some  would  call 
it  Conscience ;  but  we  call  it  by  a  holier  name,  and  say 
that  even  as  the  needle  is  acted  on  by  the  magnetic 


EPILOGUE  481 

current,  so  our  spiritual  compass  is  the  spirit  of  man 
acted  on  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Hving  and  infinite  God." 
The  lesson  of  this  book — of  every  book  of  biography  or 
of  history — is  that  men  are  noble  and  useful  in  proportion 
as  they  are  true  to  that  law  of  an  enlightened  conscience 
which  represents  to  them  the  will  and  the  voice  of 
God. 

Ahaziah  and   Jehoram    of  Judah,   tainted   with    the 
blood   of  Jezebel,   and    perverted    by   the   example    of 
Ahab,  live  wretchedly,  reign  contemptibly,  and  perish 
miserably ;    while  good  Jehoshaphat  and  pious  Josiah 
are  richly  blessed.     In  the  vaunting  elation  of  Amaziah, 
in   the   blood-stained  ferocity  of  Jehu,  in  the  ruthless 
examples  of  usurpation  and  murder  set  by  king  after 
king  in  Israel,  and   in   the  consequences  which  befell 
them,  we  see  that  "fruit  is  seed."     Shallum,  Menahem, 
Pekah,  Athaliah,  have  to  pay  a  terrible  price  for  brief 
spells  of  troubled  royalty  ;  and  the  slow  corruption  and 
disintegration  of  the  people  reflects  the  vile  example  of 
their  rulers.     Like  king,  like  people ;  like  people,  like 
priest.     We  look  on  at  a  succession  of  thrilling  scenes 
— the  horrors  of  beleaguered  cities,  the  raptures  of  un- 
expected deliverance,  the  insulting  vanities  of  triumph ; 
we  hear  the  wail  that  rises  from  long  lines  of  fettered 
captives  as  they  turn  their  backs  vv^eeping  upon  their 
native  land.     And  we  are  told  "  strange  stories  of  the 
deaths  of  kings."     We  see  the  King  of  Moab  sacrificing 
his  eldest  son  to  Chemosh  upon  the  wall  of  Kir-Haraseth 
in  the  sight  of  three  invading  hosts.     We  shudder  to 
think  of  Ahaz  and    Manasseh  passing  their  children 
through  the  fire  before  the  grim  bull-headed  monster 
in  the  valley  of  the  children  of  Hinnom.     We  see  the 
two  ghastly  piles  of  the   heads   of  young  princes  on 
either  side  the  gates  of  Jezreel.     We  see  Jehu  driving 

31 


482  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


his  fierce  chariot  over  the  body  of  the  painted  Tyrian 
Queen.  We  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  sackcloth  under 
the  purple  of  the  King  of  Israel  as  he  rends  his  clothes 
at  the  horrible  cry  of  mothers  who  have  devoured  their 
babes.  We  see  the  child  Joash  standing  with  the 
high  priest  in  the  Temple  amid  the  blast  of  trumpets, 
while  the  alien  murderess  is  pushed  out  and  hewn  to 
the  ground.  We  see  Manasseh  dragged  with  hooks  to 
Babylon.  We  watch  the  haggard  face  of  the  miserable 
Zedekiah  as  his  sons  are  slaughtered  before  the  eyes 
which  thenceforth  are  blinded  for  evermore.  We  burn 
with  indignation  to  see  the  villain  Ishmael  close  with 
corpses  the  well  of  Mizpah.  But  even  v/hen  the  phan- 
tasmagoria seems  most  appalling  and  most  bloody,  v/e 
watch  the  Day-star  from  on  high  begin  to  shed  its 
glory  over  the  grey  east.  In  due  time  that  Day-star 
was  to  rise  in  men's  hearts  and  on  the  world,  with 
healing  in  His  wings ;  and  we  feel  that  somehow, 
beyond  the  smoke  and  stir  of  earth's  anguish, 

"  God's  in  His  heaven, 
All's  right  with  the  world." 

And  like  a  Greek  chorus  amid  the  agonies  of  destiny 
stand  the  prophets,  those  clearest  and  greatest  of  moral 
teachers.  They,  in  spite  of  their  holiness  and  faithful- 
ness, are  not  exempt  from  the  calamities  of  life.  Amos 
was  insulted  and  expelled  by  the  high  priest  of  Bethel ; 
Urijah  was  martyred  ;  Hosea's  prophecy  is  one  long 
and  almost  unbroken  wail ;  Isaiah  was  mocked  and^ 
slandered  by  the  priests  of  Jerusalem,  and,  if  the 
tradition  be  true,  sawn  asunder;  Micah,  though  spared, 
prophesied  under  imminent  peril ;  Jeremiah,  saddest 
of  mankind,  type  of  the  suffering  servant  of  Jehovah, 
was  smitten   in  the  face   b}''  the  priest  Pashur,  thrust 


EPILOGUE  483 

into  the  stocks  for  the  general  derision,  flung  into  a 
deathful  prison,  let  down  into  a  miry  well,  hurried  into 
exile,  defied,  denounced,  insulted,  at  last  in  all  pro- 
bability martyred.  Prophets  in  general  were  hated 
and  disbelieved.  They  were  the  eternal  antagonists 
of  priests  and  mobs.  With  priests  they  had  so  little 
affinity,  that  when  a  prophet  was  born  a  priest,  like 
Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  he  might  count  on  the  undying 
hatred  and  antagonism  of  his  order.  Priests,  with 
scarcely  an  exception,  under  every  erring  or  aposta- 
tising king,  from  Rehoboam  to  Ahaz,  from  Ahaz  to 
Zedekiah,  with  a  monotony  of  meanness,  did  nothing 
but  acquiesce,  careful  mainly  for  their  own  rights  and 
revenues ;  prophets  did  little  but  raise,  against  them 
and  their  party,  an  unavailing  protest.  When,  in  the 
days  of  the  priest-regent  Jehoiada,  the  priests  had 
power,  he  had  made  a  special  ordinance  that  there 
should  be  overseers  in  the  Temple  whose  function  it 
should  be  to  put  in  the  stocks  and  the  collar  "  every 
man  that  is  mad,  and  that  maketh  himself  a  prophet "  ;  ^ 
and  Shemaiah  was  quite  indignant  that  there  should 
be  any  delay  in  putting  this  convenient  ordinance  into 
force.  Priests  were  chiefly  absorbed  in  functions  and 
futilities  in  the  exact  spirit  of  their  guilty  successors  in 
the  days  of  Christ.  There  could  be  little  sympathy 
between  them  and  the  inspired  messengers  who  spoke 
of  such  reliance  on  observances  with  almost  passionate 
scorn,  and  to  whom  religion  meant  righteousness 
towards  men  and  faith  in  the  Living  God. 

This  high  lesson  of  Prophecy  came  into  greater 
prominence  Vv^'ith  each  succeeding  generation.  It  had 
been  taught  by  Amos,  the  first  of  the  literary  prophets, 

'  Jer.  xxix.  25-27. 


484  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

with  emphatic  distinctness.  It  was  summarised  by 
Hosea  in  words  which  our  Saviour  loved  to  quote  : 
*'  Go  ye  and  learn  what  that  meaneth,  I  will  have  mercy, 
and  not  sacrifice."  It  had  been  uttered  by  Micah  in  an 
outburst  of  splendid  poetry  which  summed  up  all  that 
God  requires.  It  was  reiterated  in  many  forms  by 
Isaiah  and  by  Jeremiah  in  words  of  richer  moral  value 
than  all  that  came  from  the  teaching  of  the  priestly 
functionaries  from  the  days  when  Aaron  seduced  Israel 
with  his  golden  calf  till  the  da3's  when  Caiaphas  and 
Annas  goaded  the  multitude  to  prefer  Barabbas  to 
Jesus,  and  to  shout  of  their  Messiah,  "  Let  Him  be 
crucified." 

It  was  the  richest  fruit  which  sprang  from  the  long 
Divine  discipline  of  the  nation, — the  knowledge  that 
outward  things  are  of  no  avail  to  save  any  man ;  that 
God  requires  righteousness,  that  God  looketh  at  the 
heart. 

And  the  prophets  themselves  had  to  learn  by  the 
irony  of  events  that  no  suppression  of  local  sanctuaries 
under  Hezekiah,  no  multiplication  of  ceremonies  and 
acceptance  of  Deuteronomic  Codes  under  Josiah,  were 
deep  enough  to  change  men's  hearts.  Isaiah,  like 
Amos,  dwells  with  anger  on  the  reliance  upon  vain 
ritual,  which  is  so  cheap  a  substitute  for  genuine 
holiness;  and  Jeremiah,  despairing  utterly  of  that 
reformation  under  Josiah  of  which  he  had  once  felt 
hopeful,  had  to  denounce  the  new  reliance  on  the 
Temple  and  its  sacrifices.  He  ultimately  felt  no  con- 
fidence in  anything  except  in  a  new  covenant  in  which 
God  Himself  would  write  His  law  upon  men's  hearts, 
and  all  should  know  Him  from  the  least  even  to  the 
greatest. 

But  the  History  of  Prophecy  also  in  this  epoch  is 


EPILOGUE  485 

marked  by  events  of  world-wide  importance.  In  the 
days  of  Isaiah  we  see  the  change  of  Israel  from  a 
nation  into  a  church  of  the  faithful,  for  which  alone  he 
has  any  permanent  hope.  In  him,  too,  we  hear  the 
first  distinct  utterances  of  the  final  form  in  which 
should  be  fulfilled  the  Messianic  hope.  Under  Jere- 
miah there  was  still  further  advance.  He  points,  as 
Joel  does,  to  the  epoch  of.  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  shows  that  God  does  not  only  deal  with  men  as 
nations,  or  as  churches,  or  even  as  families,  but  as 
beings  with  individual  souls. 

This  and  much  besides  we  have  seen  in  the  fore- 
going pages,  in  which  we  have  endeavoured  to  point  the 
lessons  of  the  Books  of  Kings.  The  one  main  lesson 
which  the  narrative  is  meant  to  teach  is  absolute  faith 
and  trust  in  God,  as  an  anchor  which  holds  amid  the 
wildest  storms  of  ruin,  and  of  apparently  final  failure. 
Not  until  we  have  realised  that  truth  can  we  hear  the 
words  of  God,  or  see  the  vision  of  the  Almighty. 
When  we  have  learnt  it,  we  shall  not  fear,  though  the 
hills  be  moved  and  carried  into  the  midst  of  the  sea. 
It  is  the  lesson  which  gets  behind  the  meaning  of 
failure,  and  raises  us  to  a  height  from  which  we  can 
look  down  on  prosperity  as  a  thing  which — except  in 
fatally  delusive  semblance — cannot  exist  apart  from 
righteousness  and  faith.  This  is  the  lesson  of  life,  the 
lesson  of  lessons.  If  it  does  not  solve  all  problems  on 
their  intellectual  side,  it  scatters  all  perplexities  in  the 
spiritual  sphere.  It  shows  us  that  duty  is  the  reward 
of  duty,  and  that  there  can  be  no  happiness  save  for 
those  who  have  learnt  that  duty  and  blessedness  are 
one.  And  thus  even  by  this  book  of  annals — annals  of 
wild  deeds  and  troubled  times — we  may  be  taught  the 
truths  which  find  their  perfect  illustration  and  proof  in 


486  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

the  life  and  teaching  of  the  Son  of  God.  When  those 
truths  are  our  real  possession,  the  work  of  life  is  done. 
Then 

"  Vigour  may  fail  the  towering  fantasy, 
But  yet  the  Will  rolls  onward,  like  a  wheel 
In  even  motion  by  the  love  impelled 
That  moves  the  sun  in  heaven,  and  all  the  stars."' 


APPENDIX    I 

THE  KINGS   OF  ASSYRIA,   AND  SOME  OF   THEIR 
INSCRIPTIONS. 

Dates  from  the  Eponynt  Canon  and  the  Assyrian  Monuments ; 
Schrader,  Ctmeifonn  Inscriptions,  and  the  Old  Testament,  E.  Tr., 
1888,  pp.  167-187. 

B.C. 

860.— Shalmaneser  II. 

854. — Battle  of  Karkar.     War  with  Ahab  and  Benhadad. 

842. — War  with  Hazael.     Tribute  oijehii. 

825. — Samsi-Ramman.' 

8 1 2. — Ramman-Nirari. 

783. — Shalmaneser  III. 

773. — Assiir-dan  III. 

763. — June  15th.     Eclipse  of  the  sun 

755. — Assur-Nirari. 

745.— Tiglath-Pileser  11. 

742. — Azariah  (Uzziah)  heads  a  league  of  nineteen  Hamathite 

districts  against  Assyria  (?). 
740. — Death  of  Uzziah  (?). 
738. — Tribute  of  Menahem,  Rezin,  and  Hiram. 
734. — Expedition  to  Palestine  against  Pekah.     Tribute  of  Ahaz. 
732. — Capture   of  Damascus.      Death   of  Rezin.      First   actual 

collision  between  Israel  and  Assyria. 
728. — Hoshea  refuses  tribute. 
727. — Shalmaneser  IV. 
724. — Siege  of  Samaria  begun. 
722. — Sargon.     Fall  of  Samaria. 

'  Up  to  the  time  of  Tiglath-Pileser  II.,  the  Eponym  Year  (which 
is  not  here  given)  marks  the  second  complete  year  of  each  king's 
reign. 

487 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


B.C. 

721. — Defeat  of  Merodach-Baladan. 

720. — Battle  of  Raphia.     Defeat  of  Sabaco,  King  of  Egypt. 

715. — Subjugated  people   deported  to   Samaria.     Accession   ol 

Hezekiah. 
711. — Capture  of  Ashdod. 

707.- — Building  of  great  palace  of  Dur-Sarrukin. 
709. — Sargon  expels  Merodach-Baladan,  and  becomes  King  of 

Babylon. 
705. — Assassination  (?)  of  Sargon. 
705. — Sennacherib. 

704. — Embassy  of  Merodach-Baladan  to  Hezekiah. 
703. — Belibus  made  King  of  Babylon. 
702. — Construction  of  the  Bellino  C3'linder, 
721. — Siege  of  Ekron.     Defeat  of  Egypt  at  Altaqu.     Siege   of 

Jerusalem.      Campaign    against    Hezekiah    and    Tirhakah 

disastrously  concluded  at  Pelusium  and  Jerusalem. 
681. — Murder  of  Sennacherib. 
681. — Esar-haddon. 
676. — Manasseh  pays  tribute. 
668. — Assur-bani-pal  (Sardanapalus). 
608. — Death  of  Josiah  in  the  battle  of  Megiddo  against  Pharaoh 

Necho. 


The  dates  and  names  of  Assyrian  kings  as  given  in  Records 
of  the  Past  (ii.  207,  208)  do  not  exactly  accord  with  these  in 
all  cases. 

B.C. 

Tiglath-Pileser  n.     ... 
Assur-dan  II. 
Rimmon-Nirari  II.     ... 
Tiglath-Uras  II. 
Assur-natzu-pal 
Shalmaneser  II. 
Assur-dain-pal  (a  rebel) 
Samsi-Rimmon  II.     ... 
Rimmon-Nirari  III.    ... 
Shalmaneser  III. 
Assur-dan  III. 

Assur-Nirari 

Tiglath-Pileser  III.  (Pul) 


911 

889 

883 

858 

825 

..     823 

810 

..     781 

771 

753 

745 

APPENDIX  I  489 


B.C. 

Shalmaneser  IV.  (an  usurper)         727 

Sargon  (Jareb?)  (usurper) ...  722 

Sennacherib    ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  705 

Esar-haddon  I :         681 

Assur-bani-pal            668 

Destruction  of  Nineveh  under  Esar-haddon 

II.,  or  Sarakos    ...         ...         ...         ...  606 


INSCRIPTIO.N    OF   SIIAL.MANESER    II.    ON    THE   BLACK  OBELISK 
IN    THE   BRITISH    MUSEUM  ' 

It  begins  with  an  invocation  to  the  gods  Rimmon,  Adar, 
Merodach,  Nergal,  Beltis,  Istar,  and  proceeds  :-- 

"  I  am  Shahnaneser,  the  strong  king,  king  of  all  the  four  Zones 
of  the  .Sun,  the  marcher  over  the  whole  world,  .  .  .  who  has  laid 
his  yoke  upon  all  lands  hostile  to  him,  and  has  swept  them  like 
a  whirlwind." 

It  tells  of  his  campaigns  against  the  Hittites  etc.,  etc. 

The  allusion  to  Jehu  runs  as  follows  : — 

"  The  tribute  of  Yahua,  son  of  Khumri,  silver,  gold,  bowls  of 
gold,  vessels  of  gold,  goblets  of  gold,  pitchers  of  gold,  lead, 
sceptres  for  the  king's  hand,  staves,  I  received." 

This  inscription  is  supplemented  by  another  on  a  monolith 
found  at  Karkh,  twenty  miles  from  Diarbekr  {Records,  iii. 
81-100),  which  mentions  the  battle  of  Karkar,  with  its  slaughter 
of  fourteen  thousand  of  tlie  enemy,  among  whom  was  Akkabhu 
Sirlai — i.e.,  Ahab  of  Israel. 

II 

TIGLATH-PILE.SER    H.    (CIRC.    B.C.    739) 

In  his  Records  he  mentions  no  less  than  five  Hebrew  kings — 
Azariah,  Jehoahaz  (Ahaz),  Menahem,  Pekah,  Hoshea — as  well 
as  Rezin  of  Damascus,  Hiram  of  Tyre,  etc.  His  name  perhaps 
means  "  He  who  puts  his  trust  in  Adar."     See  Records  of  the 

'  This  Shalmaneser  died  about  B.C.  825,  after  a  reign  of  thirty-five 
years  (Sayce  in  Records  of  the  Past,  v.  27-42 ;  Oppert,  Hist,  des  Empires 
de  Chaldee  et  d'Assyyie;  Menant,  Annates  des  Rots  d'Assyrie,  1874). 


490  THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 

Past,  V.  45-52;  Schrader,  Keilinschr.,  pp.    149-15 1  ;  G.    Smith, 
Assyriati  Discoveries,  pp.  254-287. 

Unfortunately  the  inscriptions  are  very  mutilated  and  frag- 
mentary. 

Ill 

Our  chief  knowledge  of  Sargon  is  from  the  great  inscription 
in  the  Palace  of  Khorsabad.  It  is  translated  by  Prof.  Dr.  Jules 
Oppert,  Records  of  the  Past,  ix.  1-2 1.  The  kings  inscription  at 
Bavian,  north-east  of  Mosul,  is  in  the  same  volume,  pp.  21-28, 
translated  by  Dr.  T.  G.  Pinches.     See,  too,  id.,  vii.  21-56,  xi.  15-40. 

The  Khorsabad  inscription  has  these  passages  : — 

"  The  great  gods  have  made  me  happy  by  the  constancy  of 
their  affection  ;  they  have  granted  me  the  exercise  of  my  sove- 
reignty over  all  kings." 

He  says  : — 

"  I  besieged  and  occupied  the  town  of  Samaria  ;  I  took  twenty- 
seven  thousand  two  hundred  and  eighty  of  its  inhabitants  captive. 
I  took  from  them  fifty  chariots,  but  left  them  the  rest  of  their 
belongings.  I  placed  my  lieutenants  over  them  ;  I  renewed  the 
obligations  imposed  upon  them  by  otte  of  the  kings  who  preceded 
me.''    [Tiglath-Pileser,  whom  Sargon  does  not  choose  to  name.] 

"  Hanun,  King  of  Gaza,  and  Sabaco,  Sultan  of  Egypt,  allied 
themselves  at  Raphia  to  oppose  me.  I  put  them  to  flight. 
Sabaco  fled,  and  no  one  has  seen  any  trace  of  him  since.  I 
imposed  a  tribute  on  Pharaoh,  King  of  Egypt." 

He  tells  us  that  he  defeated  the  usurper  Ilubid  of  Hamath, 
who  had  been  a  smith  ;  burnt  Karkar  ;  and  flayed  Ilubid  alive. 

He  defeated  Azuri  and  Jaman  of  Ashdod,  and  his  most  per- 
sistent enemy,  Merodach-Baladan,  son  of  Jakin,  King  of  Chaldaea. 

He  ends  with  a  prayer  that  Assur  may  bless  him. 

IV 

Bellino's  Cylinder  comprises  the  first  two  years  of  Senna- 
cherib. It  is  translated  by  Mr.  H.  F.  Talbot,  Records  of  the  Past, 
i.  22-32.  It  was  published  by  Layard  in  the  first  volume  of 
British  Museum  Inset  iptiotis,  pi.  63.  The  facsimile  of  it  was  made 
by  BeUino. 

It  begins  : — 

"  '  Sennacherib,  the  great  king,  the  powerful  king,  the  king  of 
Assyria,  the  king  unrivalled,  the  pious  monarch,  the  worshipper 


APPENDIX  I  491 


of  the  great  gods,  .  .  .  the  noble  warrior,  the  valiant  hero,  the  first 
of  all  kings,  the  great  punisher  of  unbelievers  who  are  breakers 
of  the  holy  festivals. 

"  Assur,  my  lord,  has  given  me  an  unrivalled  monarchy.  Over 
all  princes  he  has  raised  triumphantly  my  arms. 

"  In  the  beginning  of  my  reign  I  defeated  Marduk-Baladan, 
King  of  Babylon,  and  his  allien  the  Elamites,  in  the  plains  near 
the  city  of  Kish.  He  fled  alone ;  he  got  into  the  marshes  full  of 
reeds  and  rushes,  and  so  saved  his  life." 

(He  proceeds  to  narrate  the  spoiling  of  Marduk's  camp,  and 
his  palace  in  Babylon,  and  how  he  carried  off  his  wife,  his  harem, 
his  nobles.) 

We  see  here  an  illustration  of  the  vaunting  tones  of  this  king 
which  are  so  faithfully  reproduced  in  2  Kings  xviii. 

His  Bull  Inscription,  chiefl}'  relating  to  his  defeats  of  Merodach- 
Baladan,  is  translated  by  Rev.  J.  M.  Rodwell  (Recoi'ds  of  the  Past, 
vii.  57-64). 

V 

The  Taylor  Cylinder,  so  called  from  its  former  possessor,  is 
a  hexagonal  clay  prism  found  at  Nineveh  in  1830,  and  now 
in  the  British  Museum  (translated  by  Mr.  H.  F.  Talbot, 
Records  of  the  Past,  i.  33-53). 

The  first  two  campaigns  of  Sennacherib  are  related  as  on  the 
Bellino  Cylinder.  The  Taylor  Cylinder  narrates  campaigns  of 
his  first  eight  years . 

The  story  of  the  third  campaign  narrates  the  defeat  of  Elulaeus, 
King  of  Sidon ;  the  tribute  of  Menahem,  King  of  Samaria ;  the 
defeat  of  Zidka,  King  of  Askelon ;  the  revolt  of  Ekron,  which 
deposed  the  Assyrian  vassal  Padi,  and  sent  him  in  iron  chains  to 
Hezekiah  ;  the  battle  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia  at  Altaqu  (Eltekon, 
Josh.  XV.  59),  and  the  capture  of  Timnath.  Of  Hezekiah  the  king 
says  : — 

"And  Hezekiah,  King  of  Judah,  who  had  not  bowed  down  at 
my  feet,  forty-six  of  his  strong  cities,  castles,  and  smaller  towns, 
with  warlike  engines,  I  captured  ;  200,500  people,  small  and  great, 
male  and  female,  horses,  sheep,  etc.,  without  number,  I  carried 
off.  Himself  I  shut  up  like  a  bird  in  a  cage  inside  Jerusalem. 
Siege-towers  against  him  I  constructed.  I  gave  his  plundered 
cities  to  the  kings  of  Ashdod,  Ekron, 'and  Gaza.  I  diminished  his 
kingdom  ;  I  augmented  his  tribute.     The  fearful  splendour  of  my 


492  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 

majesty  had  overwhelmed  him.  The  horsemen,  soldiers,  etc., 
which  he  had  collected  for  the  fortification  of  Jerusalem  his 
royal  city,  now  carried  tribute,  thirty  talents  of  gold,  eight  hun- 
dred of  silver,  scarlet,  embroidered  woven  cloth,  large  precious 
stones,  ivory  couches  and  thrones,  skins,  precious  woods ;  his 
daughters,  his  harem,  his  male  and  female  slaves,  unto  Nineveh,  my 
royal  city,  after  me  he  sent ;  and  to  pay  tribute  he  sent  his  envoy." 
He  then  narrates  his  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  campaigns 
against  Elam,  etc.  His  eighth  was  against  "the  children  of 
Babylon,  wicked  devils,"  etc.  He  ends  by  describing  the  splen- 
dour of  the  palace  which  he  built. 

VI 

An  inscription  of  Esar-haddon,  found  at  Kouyunjik,  now  in  the 
British  Museum,  mentions  his  receipt  of  the  intelligence  of  his 
father's  murder  by  his  unnatural  brothers,  while  he  was  command- 
ing his  father's  army  on  the  northern  confines. 

"  From  my  heart  I  made  a  vow.  My  liver  was  inflamed 
with  rage.  Immediately  I  wrote  letters,  saying  I  assumed  the 
sovereignty  of  my  Father's  House."  He  prayed  to  the  gods  and 
goddesses  ;  they  encouraged  him,  and  in  spite  of  a  great  snow- 
storm he  reached  Nineveh,  and  defeated  his  brother,  because 
Istar  stood  by  his  side  and  said  to  their  army,  "  An  unsparing 
deity  am  I"  {Records  of  the  Past,  iii.  100-108). 

VII 

A  terra-cotta  cylinder  of  Assur-bani-pal  (the  Sardanapalus  of 
the  Greeks)  is  now  in  the  British  Museum.  It  is  translated  by 
Mr.  G.  Smith,  Records  of  the  Past,  i.  55-106,  ix.  37-64;  Oppert, 
Memoire  sur  les  Rapports  de  VEgypte  et  VAssyrie ;  and  G.  Smith, 
Annals  of  Assur-bani-pal. 

Its  most  interesting  parts  relate  to  the  campaign  of  his  father 
Esar-haddon  against  Egypt,  and  how  Tirhakah,  King  of  Egypt 
and  Ethiopia,  reoccupied  Memphis.  He  defeated  the  army  of 
Tirhakah,  who,  to  save  his  life,  fled  from  Memphis  to  Thebes. 
The  Assyrians  then  took  Thebes,  and  restored  Necho's  father, 
Psamatik  I.,  to  Memphis  and  Sais,  and  other  Egyptian  kings, 
friends  of  Assyria,  who  had  fled  before  Tirhakah.  The  kings, 
however,  proved  ungrateful,  and  made  a  league  against  him.  He 
therefore   threw   them   into  fetters,  and   had   them   brought  to 


APPENDIX  II  493 


Nineveh,  but  subsequently  released  Necho  with  splendid  presents. 
Tirhakah  fled  to  Ethiopia,  where  he  "  went  to  his  place  of  night  " 
— i.e.,  died. 


APPENDIX    II 

INSCRIPTION  IN  THE  TUNNEL  OF  SILOAM 

The  inscription  of  Siloam  is  the  oldest  known  Hebrew  inscrip- 
tion. "  It  is  engraved  on  the  rocky  wall  of  the  subterranean 
channel  which  conveys  the  water  of  the  Virgin's  Spring  at 
Jerusalem  into  the  Pool  of  Siloam,  In  the  summer  of  1880  one 
of  the  native  pupils  of  Dr.  Schick,  a  German  architect,  was  play- 
ing with  other  lads  in  the  Pool,  and  while  wading  up  the  sub- 
terranean channel  slipped  and  fell  into  the  water.  On  rising  to 
the  surface  he  noticed,  in  spite  of  the  darkness,  what  looked  like 
letters  on  the  rock  which  formed  the  southern  wall  of  the  channel. 
Dr.  Schick  visited  the  spot,  and  found  that  an  ancient  inscription, 
concealed  for  the  most  part  by  the  water,  actually  existed  there." 
The  level  of  the  water  was  lowered,  but  the  inscription  had  been 
partly  filled  up  with  a  deposit  of  lime,  and  the  first  intelligible 
copy  was  made  by  Professor  Sayce  in  February  188 1,  and  six 
weeks  later  by  Dr.  Guthe.  Professor  Sayce  had  to  sit  for  hours  in 
the  mud  and  water,  working  under  masonry  or  earth.  There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  this  work  is  alluded  to  in  2  Kings  xx.  20 ; 
2  Chron.  xxxii.  30;  Isa.  viii.  6  ("the  waters  of  Shiloah  ["the 
tunnel  "  ?]  which  flow  softly  "). 

The  alphabet  is  that  used  by  the  prophets  before  the  exile, 
somewhat  like  that  on  the  Moabite  Stone,  and  on  early  Israelitish 
and  Jewish  seals.  The  language  is  pure  Hebrew,  with  only  one 
unknown  word — zadah,  in  line  three:  perhaps  "excess"  or 
"  obstacle.' 

Professor  Sayce  thinks  that  it  proves  that  "  the  City  of  David  " 
(Zion)  must  have  been  on  the  southern  hill,  the  so-called  Ophel. 
If  so,  the  Valley  of  the  Sons  of  Hinnom  must  be  the  rubbish-choked 
Tyropceon,  under  which  must  be  the  tombs  of  the  Icings,  and  the 
relics  of  the  Temple  and  Palace  destroyed  by  Nebuchadrezzar. 

The  inscription  is  : — 

"  The  excavation  !  Now  this  is  the  history  of  the  excavation. 
While  the  excavators  were  lifting  up  the  pick  each  towards  his 


494  THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  KINGS 


neighbour,  and  while  there  were  yet  three  cubits  [to  excavate], 
there  was  heard  the  voice  of  one  man  calling  to  his  neighbour, 
for  there  Vv-as  an  excess  in  the  rock  on  the  right  hand  [and  on 
the  left  ?].  And  after  that  on  the  day  of  excavating,  the  excava- 
tors had  struck  pick  against  pick,  one  against  another,  the  water 
flowed  from  the  spring  \mdtsd,  "  exit,"  2  Chron.  xxxii.  30]  to  the 
Pool "  (that  of  Siloam,  which  therefore  was  the  only  one  which 
then  existed)  "  for  twelve  hundred  cubits.  And  [part]  of  a  cubit 
was  the  height  of  the  rock  over  the  head  of  the  excavators  " 
(Sayce,  Records  of  the  Past,  i.  169-175). 

The  letters  are  on  an  artificial  tablet  cut  in  the  wall  of  rock, 
nineteen  feet  from  where  the  subterranean  conduit  opens  on  the 
Pool  of  Siloam,  and  on  the  right-hand  side.  The  conduit  is  at 
first  sixteen  feet  high,  but  lessens  in  one  place  to  no  more  than 
two  feet.  It  is,  according  to  Captain  Conder,  seventeen  hundred 
and  eight  yards  long,  but  not  in  a  straight  line,  as  there  are  two 
culs-de-sac,  caused  by  faulty  engineering.  The  engineers,  begin- 
ning, as  at  Mount  Cenis,  from  opposite  ends,  intended  to  meet 
in  the  middle,  but  failed.  The  floor  has  been  rounded  to  allow 
the  water  to  flow  more  easily.  It  is  a  splendid  piece  of  engineer- 
ing for  that  age. 

The  Pool  of  Siloam  is  at  the  south-east  end  of  a  hill  which 
lies  to  the  south  of  the  Temple  hill :  the  Virgin's  Fountain  is  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  hill,  more  to  the  north,  and  is  the  only 
natural  spring  or  "  Gihon  "  near  Jerusalem,  so  that  its  water  was 
of  supreme  importance.  Being  outside  the  city  wall,  a  conduit 
was  necessary.  Hezekiah  "stopped  all  the  fountains  "  (2  Chron. 
xxxii.  4) — i.e.,  concealed  them.  By  providing  a  subterranean 
channel  for  them,  he  saved  them  from  the  enemy  and  secured 
the  water-supply  of  the  besieged  city. 


APPENDIX    III 

WAS    THERE  A    GOLDEN  CALF  AT  DAN? 

The  question  might  seem  absurd,  but  for  its  solution  I  must  refer 
to  my  paper  on  the  subject  in  the  Expositor  for  October  1893. 

The  sole  authorities  for  a  calf  at  Dan  are  i  Kings  xii.  28-30  ; 
2  Kings  X.  29.  If  in  the  former  passage  we  alter  one  letter,  and 
read  13Xn  (the  "  ephod  ")  for  inXil  (the  "  one  ")— as  Klostermann 


APPENDIX  IV 


495 


suggests — we  throw  light  on  an  obscure  and  perhaps  corrupt 
passage.  The  allusion  then  would  be  to  Micah's  old  idolatrous 
image  (which  may  have  been  a  calf)  at  Dan.  The  two  words 
"  and  in  Dan  "  in  2  Kings  x.  29  may  easily  have  been  (as  Kloster- 
mann  thinks)  an  exegetical  gloss  added  from  the  error  of  one 
letter  in  i  Kings  xii.  30. 

Dan  was  a  most  unlikely  place  to  select :  for  (i)  It  was  a  remote 
frontier  town ;  and  (2)  there  was  no  room,  and  no  necessity  there, 
for  a  new  cultus  beside  the  ancient  one  established  some 
centuries  earlier,  and  still  served  by  priests  who  were  direct 
lineal  descendants  of  Moses  (Judg.  xviii.  30,  31). 

This  would  further  account  for  the  absolute  silence  of  prophets 
and  historians  about  any  golden  calf  at  Dan  ;  and  it  adds  to  the 
inherent  probability,  also  supported  by  some  evidence,  that  there 
were  two  cherubic  calves  at  Bethel. 

For  further  arguments  I  must  refer  to  my  paper. 


APPENDIX    IV 


DATES  OF    THE  KINGS    OF  ISRAEL    AND  JUDAH,    AS 
GIVEN  BY  KITTEL  AND   OTHER  MODERN  CRITICS' 


Ahaziah 

Jehoram 

Jehu    ... 

Jehoahaz 

Joash... 

Jeroboam  II. 

Zachariah 

Shallum 

Menahem 

Pekahiah 

Pekah 

Hoshea 


Israel 


B.C. 

855-854 
854—842 
842 — 814 
814—797 
797-781 
781—740 
740 
740 
740—737 
737—735 
735—734 
734—725 


'  Many  of  these  dates  can  only  be  regarded  as  uncertain  and 
approximate.  Kamphausen  dates  the  commencement  of  all  the  latter 
kings  a  year  later  (Die  Chronologte  der  hebraischen  Konige,  Bonn,  1883). 


496 


THE  SECOND  BOOK   OF  KINGS 


JUDAH 

Jehoram  ben-Jehoshaphat 

Ahaziah  ben-Jehoram 

Athaliah 

Joash  ben-Ahaziah 

Amaziah 

Amaziah-Uzziah 

Jotham 

Ahaz  ... 

Hezekiah 

Manasseh 

Amon 

Josiah 

Jehoahaz 

Jehoiakim 

Jehoiachin 

Zedekiah 


851—843 
843-842 
842-836 

836—796 
796—783 

783—737 
737—735 
735—715 
715—686 

686—641 
641—639 
639 — 608 
608 
608 — 597 

597 
597—586 


Date  Due 

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BS491 .E96  12 

The  second  book  of  Kings. 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00057  2588 


